Believe to Achieve

10.1 miler-- that hilly route in the foothills of PG.  Now why is my left leg sore?  Oh yah, it was dragging my right leg Saturday night.  I also have this weird nerve impulse in my left abdominal muscle by my belly button.  Its been there since Saturday night.  It feels like little fingers dragging on my skin from the inside in short impulses.  I think I pulled that muscle too in my 180 degree twist and send off from the TM last Tuesday.  I didn't feel my right quad hurting until downhills around mile 6.5.  Glad this race is a flat course this Saturday.  Ran easy today.  First mile 9:16.  Last mile 7:08.  Felt very malaligned still.  Just got a coupon for money off my chiropracter but is good for Wednesday only.  I will wait until then after work.  Luckily he is open until 7pm.  No big hard workouts planned anyway.  A forced taper.  Hopefully it pays off.  I expect a time of 1:32 or better.  But hey I might fall again. I have had this fear lately whenever I run now.  I see myself falling.  Must start  visualizing "strong Julie" to cure this.  Today I started out in rain then brief hail then brief windchill then breaks in the clouds to reveal a BLUE sky.  : D.  Temp above 30.  A huge RELIEF.  : DDDDDD.   AP for 10.1 miles=  8:08.

Met up with Kim at 5:50am.  Ran a little over three miles  warm up then 4 x 800s at goal half marathon (fantasy goal that is) pace.  We were winded and it was colder than I thought after removing some layers.  I felt cold and VERY achy the entire run.  Like arthritis OLD LADY phenomena.  This happens from time to time. At least it is now and NOT this Saturday.  800s were run at 6:36, 6:44 (good uphill portion), 6:32, 6:20 (some downhill).  At least feeling crappy I was still able to go faster than goal pace.   We ran 800s in between each one at an easy 7:50-8:10 pace.  Kim did really well but not as well as she hoped.  We blame it on DARKNESS, potholes to worry about and UNusually busy at all our crossings.  Of course we were running our 800s at these points.  Total miles here= 10.1.  Oh yah our "warmup" AP for two miles was  7:41.  Good thing I made her do an 8:35 mile the first one.  Geez.   Cooldown for 2.8 miles at 7:42 pace.  LATER at the REC center with my hunny:  5 miles on the track.  First one really easy with Troy (9:25) then I just felt really good so did a relaxed easy pace for four more miles, last two at 7:42, 7:42.  AP for 5 miles=  8:18.  Then I biked for 12 minutes moderate pace.  Ended with upper body three sets of 10-12 reps (7 types of arm excercises) and front plank x 60 sec and 30 sec each side.  Took the weights down a notch.  I still have residual soreness from the fall.  Don't want reminders.  : D.  15.1 total miles for the day.

Very stiff this morning.  Ran EASY at 4:55 am for 3 1/2 miles then met up with my DAUGHTER Courtney for 1/2 mile.  She told me last night that she wanted to run with me.  She has asked several times and she specifically asked to go this morning early.  She met me at 5:35am.  Actually I had to go get her from her sitting in her bed with her gear on wondering if she was running in the rain or not.  Of course I told her.  She ran a 11:00 pace, so my AP for all 4 miles was nice and easy 8:58.  Not sure why I am so achy everywhere. Probably the rainy weather.  Worked all day today in the NICU at UVRMC.  Long day.  Cute babies though.  

10 VERY ACHY VERY FORCED RUN!!  all my joints achy, mostly knees, lower back and wrists.  I feel so old.  This has been going on for four days now and this was the worst day by far.  This morning when I awoke lying prone (my stomach) I could not turn over as my back was "locked up" and to try to turn it hurt QUITE a bit. I had to tell my husband next to me to rub my lower back so  I could loosen up and be able to turn over.  I feel like I have a virus in my joints.  I rarely (last documented was a year ago December for three days)  get "colds" any more the traditional way--  I seem to get nerve pains, headaches and joint aches.  An off the wall immune response.  I guess I will try and take it easy.   I work a few hours today for a coworker so she can go to a class (4.5 hrs) and am off tomorrow.  I will try some acetaminophen now.  Just typing my fingers feel achy.  Here goes the fall apart before the race.  My body tries to tell my mind NOT to race.  It just won't listen.  But it will listen to taking it easy for one more day.  I am running only 5 miles tomorrow.  AP today on a hilly cedar hills run for 10 miles= 8:21.   

Felt soooo tight upon awakening, espec. left lower leg.  Left foot feels painful.   Also had a pretty bad headache as I left work.  Several coworkers came on shift with lots of perfume on and I quickly got a migraine on the right side of my face and down my neck to my lower spine.  Burning pain.  It didn't go away until I fell asleep.  I awoke all tight.  But determined to detox during another forced run.  This time I went to the PG rec with my husband and ran 5.5 miles on the TM.  Ran 1.5 miles at 2% real easy (8:57 pace) then three miles at 2.75 miles at 3% and .3 miles at 4% at varied increasing speeds.  AP for all 5.5 miles = 8:21.  Did the last .1 before the cooldown 1/2  mile at 2% 6:18 pace.  Just to see where the kinks were.  Yup still the left leg.  So went to the chiropracter (better late than NEVER) and low and behold:  HIPS WAY OUT, both wrists, knees and ankles (espec. my left ankle).   Well that is HOW I landed on my Big fall last week, so not too surprised.  I am just too old to be resilient like a teenager.  I don't go back into place like I should.  Ready to do THE VERY BEST I CAN TOMORROW, A TIME AND SEASON FOR ALL THINGS.....not sure about a PR on a flat course (my best is at the Halloween half last year 1:27:40).  So just going to set a flat course PR of 1:30 to 1:32.  I may try to start out a goal MP (fantasy pace- 6:44) and see if I can hold on.  I never have run a race like that so it makes me nervous to do so.  Or hold off and then try to reel myself in?  Oh forget all this, I am going to just have FUN with it   : DDDD.

Just got back from St. George and got the kids to bed and got on a computer for the first time since leaving Friday afternoon.  So FINALLY  : D  I can write my report.  I went from feeling pretty crappy all week and continued all night before the race.  Even awoke with very stiff calves from my hill work the day before and was slightly concerned.   I got up at 6:30am and left the door at 7:10am to try and see the course.  I could only see five miles of it because the rest looped around a golf course a few times so wasn't sure about how it ended but felt confident the course wasn't too difficult.  Nothing like the hills  I have been running around here.  Anyway, picked up Melanie at her place and drove back to the start at 8:20am.  Parked a 1/2 mile from the start and ran a 2.1 mile warm up.  At first we were both very cold and thought "no way" to taking off our leggins' but after a mile warmup we were surprised as the sun came up how quickly we felt we could lose some clothing.  I changed out of my black tights at 8:35am and finished the warmup and luckily ran into Kim and Jane on their warm up.  Mel and I ran 2.1 miles at 8:13 AP.  Bathroom break and chatted til the start.  The start was right on time.  We basically were right down to the wire in time.  I turned on my iPod just before the race to hear the words "BATTERY LOW".  I was totally bummed, banking on adrenaline boost from my music.  Now I know why I accidentally left my iPod home last week when I did that long SW on the TM.  Time to break away from "music mode".  I ran the first two miles with music then paused it until mile 7 or so, at times turning it off to conserve battery power for the end.  I don't think it made a difference.  I felt great the whole time, even chatting with everyone I passed by, if they were sans music of course.  Here are my splits and brief dialogue, if any:

6:59 *only problem with the start was it was on time and I wasn't quite ready AND many runners that run slower stood at the line and I was back 6 seconds.  I literally had to pause at times in order to shuffle around the slower runners "blocking me".  

6:58 feeling good.  Keeping it easy.  Just worried my tight calves and left leg might give me problems if I went too fast.

6:53  lost one of my lucky gloves (it has a picture of a girl runner and says "Runner Girl" on it).  Someone after the race told me they saw it and wondered who had time to place a glove on the ground in a "hang loose" sign.  Aren't I talented?  Took a gu just before this mile just for fun.

6:53. 

6:55

7:00  Good but short uphill portion.  Aid station right at the base of this steep hill. 

6:51.  Seriously I am thinking when will this get hard but still worried about picking it up so I figure I mightaswell stick with what works.

6:55

7:04 Steepest uphill portion and mile 9 is at the top of it and so is an aid station : D.  Took a gu just before this mile.  I took only two gus total and drank water at each aid station.

6:59 

6:54

7:01  That uphill again (same as mile 6) but hey I am almost done.  Now where does this thing turn off to the finish?  I sure hope I don't miss it.  Passing lots of walkers/joggers that I am looping.  Hard to book it down a hill then turn sharply over bridges with others to worry about but not really causing much anxiety.  I feel great and decide to pick it up.

6:49  I sure hope I didn't pick it up too soon?  I couldn't see the finish line...turn, oh there it is...I guess its time to sprint to the finish. 

0.1 miles at 6:22 pace. 

I had my watch on pace mode so didn't realize my time so much but knew I was under 7 AP (6:55 to be exact : D).  Wish I had it in time mode.  I would have tried a little harder to get under 1:30.  I had it in me.  IN FACT I seriously could have run another 10 miles at 7 even pace.  No soreness, no notice that I even "raced" a half marathon yesterday.  I am beginning to think I just may be able to break three hours in the marathon in the near future.  I felt this pace was just under lactate threshold, which helped me feel so good the entire time.  I figure  if I keep training more wisely I can get there.   : DDDDD.  Totally happy with this race.  2nd master overall.  2nd in age category.   A cute 40 year old woman came in three minutes before me.  I guess if she can do it  I CAN.  I didn't know her.  She is from Salt Lake.  There were a lot of new faces at the race and a lot of people from the blog that I got to talk with  : DDDD.