[S]he Conquers Who Endures

1.3 mile WALK to the pool NO boot, then 75 mins waterjogging with some friends in my running club. 10 min wu, 8x5 mins hard (well, kinda, we did a bit of talking :) ), with 1 min recoveries, then 10x45 sec hard with 15 sec recoveries (these were truly hard - no talking), then 5 min cd. Then 1.3 mile WALK home! The walk home felt much better than the walk to the pool. I think waterjogging is a magical cure-all.  

AM: 1.5 h speed bike. 30 min wu, then 7x3 mins at 80-93% max hr, with 3 min recoveries, 15 min cd. This felt good...like 800m repeats good. :)

My 0.5 mile walk to work today with no boot felt like any old normal day!! First longer walk that felt like that since April!! :) T-10 days until first run!! 

PM: 82 mins waterjogging. 20 min wu, 2x[10x1:30 min hard w 30 sec recovery] 2 min easy between sets, then 20 min cd. It's so awesome to build from 2 sets of 5 repeats to 2 sets of 10 repeats. I've come a long way! The pool felt so refreshing this evening, and then my legs were so fatigued once I got out of the pool. I think everyone should try this because that sensation is amazing! 

AM: WALKED 2 miles in my running shoes while singing "I would walk 500 miles..." in my head. I didn't realize how long walking 2 miles would take, haha, so I got a late start to the day. I definitely got some good work in on my foot for this walk! Then 4 sets of 3 exercises with 3 sets each exercise. Finished with 6 mins planks and burnt my abs with 3x30 abmat situps. Yeah, there are some packs poking through now! :)

It's T-9 days to run, but I cheated. My dr okayed me to try the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill I start that Monday!! So less than one week to AlterG run!

My motivation and attitude are kicking major booty right now, and being able to add AlterG while working back into running has me feeling better about this half in July! Right now I think I will annihilate it, but let's just see how things go. :) 

PM: 110 mins waterjogging. 20 min wu, 7x5 mins hard, 5 min recovery, 20 mins cd. The pool was vacant since I went mid-day so I could run my work experiment later. It was nice to have an entire lane to myself for a while!

AM: 2.25 h steady bike. 25 min wu @ 60% max hr, then 3x20mins @ 80-85% max hr, with 15 mins recovery, 10 min cd. I imagined the 20 min intervals were running the July half marathon. It didn't feel that bad! :) My foot was achy towards the end and my legs are fried. I am looking forward to an easy waterjogging workout later this evening to fix me up good. I get to start elliptical tomorrow!!!

PM: 1.25 h steady waterjogging. This felt really good to take an entire workout easy. I haven't done that in a long time...too long! 

30 mins elliptical then 3.5 h long bike. 

This is my first elliptical go, and it was amazing! Wow, I never thought the elliptical would feel so heavenly. As soon as I started going, it felt so similar to that running feeling in my hips and thighs that I almost started crying it felt so good! Definitely got a good workout in on my feet muscles. :)

I will be driving the van and bike pacing my Ragnar team this weekend from Madison to Chicago, so I had to get my long bike in today so I wouldn't miss it this weekend. It was so tough to get going after my bike workout yesterday, but I basically did a "progressive long bike" % max hr-wise. Started out hardly able to break 68 to 70% in the first 45 mins, then continually increased hr until the last 15 mins I kept it closer to 78-81% max hr. Averaged 73% max hr - right on target.

Now I'm ready to drive a van and ride a bike alongside my teammates through the night! It'll be great times with friends. I'm pretty sure I've come to terms with not being able to run. I can blow up my pace in races when my body is ready. 

Bike paced my Ragnar running teammates through the night. I counted up the mileage, it was actually 26.2. Weird!! Probably around a 4 h bike ride, probably around 45-50% max hr. There were some nice rollers in WI. I made sure to keep seated on the bike to get a little burn in my quads. :)

Bike pacing was a success! One of my good looking female friends got hit on around 2am by some drunk, creepy guy with a flash light out in the middle of nowhere with no people around. I'm so glad I was with her! He wouldn't want to mess with me!

Ragnar was more difficult than I thought. At the finish, my team ran in the final runner. I, of course, could not run. I watched as all 6 of them ran through the cheering crowds to the finish. It was so sad! There went another race I was looking forward to. There would be no finisher's medal for me, they would be taking pictures of the team without me as I make my way over to them. I went along for the ride, driving the van all but 4 legs, and the legs I was bike pacing my teammates. As I make my way to meet up with my teammates. I force myself to hold back tears (doing a very good job of it, I must say). As soon as I link up with them and see their beautiful ultra finisher's medals they pull out a 7th medal and place it around my neck. I burst into tears. They made me feel so much a part of the team. I was sad and mad I couldn't run, but they were so grateful for all the work I did to help them through the race.

Everyone is on a different running journey. Just as with life, there are highs and lows. You have to experience the lows to feel the highs. Last year was a big year of PRs for me. As I write this now, I am actually grateful for this injury. I know I would keep PRing, but now I will be starting a marathon training schedule fresh (for once) and my PRs will feel that much more worth it after sacrificing so much this Spring.