Believe to Achieve

19 degrees as I passed the Good Earth thermometer in American Fork around 7:45 am.  Brr...but I had my new gear on and I was cozy.  Wish I had new gear for every day I ran but luckily I run at 430am  often so no one can see my lack of fashion sense.  Ran 12.17 miles running up the back way to Cedar Hills via the Art Dye Park and through there and down to my house.  NEVER looked at my watch.  Could hear the mile beeps but refrained from EVER looking at my pace or splits.  Just was going easy.  Guessed I was going about 8:20 to 8:30 AP but nicely surprised with 8:12 AP for 12.17 miles.  Miles were quite progressive actually-- however with a quicker first mile than usual-- 8:37.   That was my slowest mile.  Last mile was the fastest at 7:42.  Last .17 was 7:34.   Followed later after a little snack with 50 pushups (5 x 10 pushups).   I can only do 10 in a row to avoid excessive pressure to my head.  I have to be careful due to my brain problem (chiari malformation).  I was apparently having a recurrence of my headaches due to the strain I was LITERALLY placing on my brain-- mainly my brainstem blocking my cerebral spinal fluid which led to uneven fluid balance and then headaches.    I had surgery for it in 2004 but the CSF fluid still was not flowing well to the back of my brain stem on followup MRIs.  I was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation FINALLY (after having dizzy spells, headaches, numbness, tingling, heartrate problems) after telling my neurologist about how worse it got with lifting weights in 2003.  A light bulb went on in her head and she had me do an MRI with breath-holding which revealed my malformation even more and my low CSF flow to the brain stem.  When anyone lifts weights,  it exerts a lot of pressure in our head.  Basically I have to use low weights.  Nothing more than 10 to 12 pounds and less for certain exercises.  How is that for an explanation????  Getting closer to 3,000 miles!!  Almost taken out by a car stopped at an intersection that continued to drive thru after it stopped briefly and nearly clipped me.  I had to speed up to avoid him.  Wow, goal among other things would have been completely out of reach if that happened!!!