Believe to Achieve

J.K.  Really I just turned 42 today and what more dramatic way to start the day then 42 EASY PACE miles thru the snowcapped roads of Pleasant Grove?  Seriously, NOT.  In fact my right shoulder, neck and arm pain is NOT letting up and gets worse a few hours after I run.  At least I don't notice it while running. Thank you ENDORPHINS.  I need to go and get adjusted.  Lucky chiro that I fell on the TM and run on a shaky one.  I think I am going to go for 4 miles then 2 later on instead of 42.  How is that for sanity?  The older the WISER : D.  IN REALITY:  I ended up running 10.1 miles at 8:24 AP at 11am (had to wait for Troy to get back from the Rec center. Amber home sick with fever and cold).  I sure felt like an OLD lady, creaking knees and spine.  Oh Joy.  Neck and arm okay during run.  Tried hard to relax my shoulders while I ran.  Enjoyed this run, snow and slush and SUN coming out behind the fluffy clouds!!   Ran up and around Cedar Hills and trotted along ever so relaxed.  The first mile I was like "Oh my I must surely be doing a 10:15 mile".  So glad to see that it was really a 9:22.  My usual warm up mile pace.  Alleluyah.  At mile 4 a little whipper snapper DOG would NOT leave me alone.  I wasn't sure if he would bite my ankle or not and I kept yelling at him.  I was stopped for at least 3 minutes trying to get him off my "tail".  VERY ANNOYING.  After that things got adventurous up the Farm Rd where trucks are filled with dirt doing construction and leaving a muddy pathway for me to run through.  It felt so Spring-like : D.  I loved it .  Climbed that long hill and felt invigorated because I didn't push myself.  These runs are my strength.  Now I feel renewed. 

Sent all my patients home so I got to go home.  Arrived home at 1pm but feeling achy all over.  Took two ibuprofen on my drive home.   After eating birthday cake and two lemon bars given by my VTs, I surely felt like running.  So I got out the door at 4:45pm in the sunny windchill and got in 4.2 miles at a leisurely pace (8:37AP) before dinner then a date with my daughter (for Young Women) to see Phantom of the Opera  put on my Pleasant Grove High School.  VERY IMPRESSIVE!!  Spectacular even.  For high school, it was truly UNBELIEVABLE from the costumes to the setup to the female leading role (let's not forget also  the male voices especially the Phantom and Rauol).  Seriously so far off from the high school plays my school put on.  I heard that $60,000 went into this production.  Tickets are sold out.  The staging was incredible!!  

WAY AWESOME FEELIN' GREAT LACTATE THRESHOLD workout!!!!  Plan was 800m (1/2 mile) at goal MP (6:53) alternated with 1/2 mile at 5k pace ( 6:31) repeated x 3 miles with 5 minute rest and repeat x 1. BUT IT WAS GOING SO WELL  that  I ran THROUGH  the rest  and ran all six miles with NO rest.  Honestly  I could have repeated this another 6 times for a 12 mile total but really I DON'T need to be that ahead of myself.  I don't want to peak too early.  So this is what I ran:  4 mile warmup at 2 % grade, first mile 9:24AP : D.  Love starting out slow.  Second mile 8:57.  Third mile 8:34 AP: and last mile 8:13 AP.  Basically very easy and so like "am I going to run speed work today or what?"  So then I turned the incline down to 1 % and decided to wake up out of my TM coma.  I ran 1 @ 1/2 mile at 6:53 (so easy : D) and 1 mile at 6:31 (felt really doable and knew when I went back to 6:53 I would feel even better and I did :D).  Repeated this 6 times for 6 miles at AP of 6:37 because I ran the last two laps at 6:00 to 6:22 pace :  D. for a STrOnG  finish..   Even with a 1/2 mile at 8:06 AP before starting my speedwork (zeroed the TM clock) I ran a 10 k PR (42:08) when I got to 6.2 miles on the TM.  And I really felt like I had a LOT left in me.  I purposely did NOT allow myself to go faster.  THE POINT of this of workout is to make THE MILES FEEL DOABLE, NOT ALL OUT  or  out of breath.    I am looking forward to later in my training to repeating this times 12 for 12 miles at 6:42.  I felt on cloud nine after this work out.  Cooldown mile at 7:53 AP, 2 % incline.  

SUNCREST.  6 miles UP  6 miles DOWN  in THE FRIGID WINDCHILL.   Melanie's car read 16 degrees (not counting windchill) and I am sure it was colder 6 miles up.  I didn't feel my toes until mile 3.5- 4 and my butt thawed out on the drive home with Kim.  We sure steamed up my car.  I had to pull over and wait longer for the steam to thaw off my windshield.  Quite enjoyed the downhill.  I was way too frozen on the uphill that my legs couldn't quite turnover.  I felt like the TIN MAN.  Misery loves company.  We all felt about the same way.  Even talking was a workout trying to move our frozen chins to form sentences.  The way back down felt very easy and very controlled.  I was not tired here at all.  So glad since yesterday was SW.  I am sure sometime tomorrow at work I will be needing a nap.  But I will just have to plug along and do my best of course.  AP up-- 7:57  (NOT A SINGLE STOP  :  D til the TOP).  AP down-- 6:49.  Splits: 8:48,  9:20,  9:45,  9:06, 8:30, 8:18, ROCKY MOMEMT,  7:23, 7:00, 6:50, 6:28, 6:32,  6:42 (slowed for CRAZY TRAFFIC scene at the light).  Total AP= 7:53.

Nothing but working with RSV babies and children needing suctioning all day.  For the first half of the shift I felt for sure I was going to catch "the bug" since I got a brief sore throat and ear ache.  Then gone all of a sudden.  : D.  So perhaps I will run at 4am before work tomorrow...depends on how early I get to bed.

A 430am run before work, tired but got out anyway.  AP for 7.35 miles = 7:55.  Ran a 2.42 loop three times.  Rolling hills.  Clocked in 4 minutes late.  But clocked out 43 minutes late.  Ate lunch and breakfast at 3pm.  Ridiculously busy.  Short staffed and many a SICK child.   But I so do enjoy working on pediatrics.  No sign of illness.  : D.  I have been eating a daily dose of sugar cookies shaped like hearts and frosted.  Yum.   Yesterday lunch and breakfast consisted of 5 onion rings and a frosted cupcake from a special pastry shop given to the staff from a patient.  Basically that's all I had time to eat.  I rarely eat this badly but when you are on the go sugar is good.  Chocolate a necessity.   

PM:  plank 1:30,  L 45sec R 45 sec.  Since my fall my shoulders, elbows and hands have taken quite the brunt of it.  Shooting nerve pains etc... but gradually getting better.  Chiro put my wrist, elbow and shoulders back in last Monday.