Believe to Achieve

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!   18 MILER GROUP RUN starting at  my house (PM me for my address).  Start time 7:30am??????    I plan on having whole wheat waffles and syrup, bananas, chocolate milk, orange juice, oranges, fat free milk, almonds, and scrambled eggs if anyone wants.  If you want you can bring donuts to share but I typically don't eat them.  Sorry.      Here's hoping for no impending snow storms that make a mess of the streets.  This is a five cities run.  We will run from Pleasant Grove to American Fork, then Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills then back to Pleasant Grove.   We may lightly dust Lehi. So maybe six cities.  :D.    THESE towns/streets ARE NOT USED to large group runs so JAKE wear your orange!!!!! 

First of all,  have a good laugh--- this is the gift my husband tells me he is giving me for my birthday tomorrow, hilarious---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eJhAR5tQg0

My workout:  Okay first I will inform the maniacal person I am to run this with very sore lower back.  I finally got my hamstrings to calm down just before heading out the door this morning.  But my left lower back to my left hamstring in the middle really was quite mad during this run.  So what did I do???? I ignored it.  

Warmup 2.5 miles (feeling depressed and nonrunner like):  1/2 mile times at  8:57, 8:41, 8:27, 8:13, 8:00.  All at 2%.  Then 3 x 2 miles at tempo interval pace with 1/2 mile at recovery jog of 8:27 pace.  All at 0.5% incline.  So  6:27 x 2 miles, 1/2 mile at 8:27, 6:27 x 2 miles  (picked it up the last "corner" to 6:18), then 1/2 mile at 8:27 pace, then 6:27 x 3/4 mile, 6:22 x 1/4 mile, 6:27 x 3/4 mile, 6:00 to 6:22 x 1/4 mile.  1/2 mile cooldown at 8:13 AP.  Leg and back were quite tight but the pace was great, very doable.  I ran this faster than three weeks ago!!! Yippee.  I think I ran the pace at 6:35. 

Followed up with a visit to my FAVORITE chiropracter.  He spent over 30 minutes with me with TENS and heating pad and stretches as well as manipulation.  He said my left hip was WAY OUT and he could tell just by looking at how I stood.  Hence why my left leg was in a lot of pain.  The therapy was so very nice.  He even has relaxing music playing. 

What a birthday surprise--- hot flashes and a very tight hamstring/buttock!!  :D.  Yes I awoke in the middle of night (midnight to be exact) dripping wet like I had gone running out in a sauna.  I am serious.  Well that was the first clue I was turning 43 today.  Then, the darn hamstring/buttock pain and tightness!!! Gee whiz, this is new.  I mean for it to contine on and on like this and actually feel worse today!!!  Rolled it and rolled it, mind you it was a killer.  But runners have a thing for pain so I kept doing it.  It felt so much better after rolling it.  Ahhh.  So I went to the gym for 8 recovery miles on the TM at 1%.  It took control to keep it slow like this but I behaved myself for the most part until I got to the last half mile of the 7 th mile and saw that the TM would shut off at 60 minutes and so I upped it to 7:30 pace to get the 7 miles in just under 60 minutes (59:51).  I ran the last mile at 7:56 AP.  I started at 8:27 pace and went up 0.1 mph every 1/10th of mile for the last mile.  That is when knew my hamstring was talking.  He said stop.  Lucky for him I was stopping.  : D.    

Hamstring and left sciatic nerve a pretty bad problem right now.  No way should I run on it.  Worked all day but was so busy I had to ignore the pain as I handed out pain meds all shift.  But worse than this pain was the fact that our furnace gave out.... it was making funny noises and then this morning it felt chilly and the thermostat read 57degrees when it read that it was trying to be at 62 (what we automatically set at for the night).  The vents were blowing cold air.....915 dollars later....and the REMOVAL of the TWO hamsters we have lost in the past 2 years (one two years ago and one last April), having made a nest in our furnace but ended up dying there from lack of food and water.  YUP they made a nest and fell through into the furnace which clogged our furnace which led to our motor dying which led to a thorough cleaning of coils, a new motor and a new switch.  YUP we joined the "year club" to get our air conditoning cleaned/checked in the spring.  Last summer, the kids and I (not husband who does not have a good smeller) could smell "dead" rodent/hamster smell when we turned on our AC.  It went away after about a week so we thought, some other rodent scurried off with our dead hamster.   Who knows when they died but the damage was done when they pulled out lots of insulation to make a nest and it ended up suffocating our heating system.  Totally not impressed and extremely irritated.  We save 915 dollars on our flights to Boston.....little did I know it was to be turned around for an expensive little pet expense.   Dead pet expense.  Seriously still quite upset.  I can't rationalize this one away very well.  I try to get ahead and I can't.  I will have to work forever.  I am not destitute by any means but I am the type of person that will end up sacrificing even the smallest of pleasures just to make penance for such a large expenditure.   Maybe I could get some uplifting advice from fellow bloggers?  please share misery stories.  They help me the most.   : D.  I would like company you know.  I know  I sound dramatic but really...915 dollars??????    At least  I am not freezing to death.  My husband was at home in 55 degree temps indoors all day.  Trust me it is cold when you are used to indoor temps of 67 degrees.  He had to examine the dead hamster remains as the technician thought they might be mice.  But nope, Troy said  "looks like Holly (the name of our last hamster).  Her fur markings were all there.  Decayed bones.  What fun.  I did shed a brief tear.  I did like our hamster but that 9.99 dollar Petsmart pet sure cost us 1000 percent!!!  okay done complaining.  Can't run so it makes it all the worse. 

Pulled my mizuno precision 11s from the DI pile and wore those today.  Worried pureflows caused the IT band problem which then pulled out my hip then tugged on my hamstring.  Altras hurting my 43 year old lower back several hours after a run (not while running).  Where is my perfect shoe????    And then a MIRACLE.  I was on Facebook and saw Kelli post the new shoes she just bought which happen to be my favorite shoe Mizuno Precision, but they are the precision  12s which aren't my favorite.  They caused my PF just before SGM.  They were missing something in the soles that the other models had.  I was worried the new color they just came out with, also the version 12 would be made the same way. THE GOOD NEWS:    I had Kelli do the flexibility test on them and they DO NOT collapse upon themselves.  Alleluyah!!  I can go back to my favorite shoe without having to buy the UGLY orange model (the 11s) that I already ran to the ground last summer!!!   But my happiness is delayed with the mortification of my HUGE expenditure yesterday.  I mean come on let's get real  915 dollars can buy some really nice running gear-- not to mention 9 pairs of shoes!!!  As penance I thought of sacrificing myself by running barefoot for a year.  That's right-- no shoe buying for a year.  That saves 600 dollars right there.  But you know what I think, perhaps I will finally just take my kids out of piano for 9 months from April to December.  That will save me OVER 1000 dollars right there.  Three girls in piano is costly.  They give me a hard time anyway.  Why should I suffer????  I loved piano and played and played and played. Teaching myself through summers.  I only had lessons for a year.    I know this sounds brutal to my kids but honestly I think a break from constantly bugging them to practice would do me a world of good.    My oldest actually practices often on her own.  My youngest needs me to help her when she gets a new song. My middle daughter would love NOT to play.  Hey it was THEIR HAMSTERS that they LET LOOSE twice--- not closing the lid correctly and once leaving it wide open!!!  12 miles today 1 percent incline, started with miles at 8:27, 8:13, 8:00, 7:53, 7:47, 7:41, 7:35, 7:30, 7:24 x 2.  7:19 x 2 miles. Some pickups to no faster than 7:03.  AP last 8.5 miles =  7:29. 

Started out on lead legs for some reason.  I wore my very old/many miles  running shoes on the TM yesterday so that probably fatigued out my legs a bit.  But honestly my legs have been hurting a lot lately.  Lots of nerve pains in my hamstrings and quite a bit in my feet.  I felt like Andrea described about painful feet that you would expect at the end of a marathon feeling.  At least I wore my Brooks Pureflow that feel very cushiony.  Hoping to do another check with this shoe as the cause for my sudden flare of IT band issues last week.  I could feel both IT bands just very slightly trying to act up in the run but nothing currently nor nothing when I ran the last four miles fast.  I haven't run my 18 miler with four fast at the end since before Painters Half.  I didn't feel as good during the four fast as I have in the last two times I ran this loop but I managed to stay on goal.   I told God I didn't want to fail today so please help me out.  I took a gu at mile 9 (kept running) then stopped at mile 12 at the eternal water fountain.  It was running without much pressure so I tried as hard as I could to get some liquid in me.  One mile later (13) I started my 4 fast miles.  Again I run 13 to 17th mile fast as the 18th mile has a nice downhill portion.  I don't want to cheat.  : D.   Today was not easy to stay at the goal pace of under 7mm but I did it and I am happy the effort was there!!  Those splits were 6:50 (would have been faster but the streetlight was red so I had to turn left when I needed to go straight and kept looking over my shoulder to see if I could cross yet), 6:42, 6:45, and 6:43.   AP= 6:45.    Took a long hot shower and got my personal masseuse to roll out all my muscles.  AP for the 18 miles = 7:52. 

8 lonely cold miles at 435am before work.  Recovery jog pace -- AP 8:21.  First mile 9:03.  Legs tired.   Worked all day.  Long day.