Believe to Achieve

Not doing anything.  My back and left knee are giving me trouble.  Over did it with the bike ride  Friday and tempo Saturday.  My calves feel really tight, not lactic just tight.  I am sure a good rest day will do me good.  My body is screaming for it.  Also, my headaches have been awful.  But today it has mellowed out.  I love to run in the rain so I hope some of you got out there in it.  I am in that "did I do the right training?" frame of mind right now.  Sometimes thinking I should just get the 330 marathon and not push it.  Then the other half of me says " this is it, you are almost forty, I can do it (3:20)".  I guess I have to wait to see how the race day "magic" might induce stronger feelings or contrary. 

Ran with husband Troy an unusual but scenic route after 1.5 miles.  First mile 8:05.  Fresh legs always feel great.  We toned it down after that to about 8:20 to 8:30.  The last mile was 7:28 though.  My husband knew where the mile marker was and began to pick it up.  I felt comfortable at the half mile mark left (4:00) but he kept picking it up as I tried to stay with him.  I was like hey slow down I need to be careful of  my knee.  The darn knee/hip is really putting a damper on things.  It can't hold up for 25.2 miles at that pace (7:30) unless I can do the mind over matter game or get some relief soon.  I think my hip is out of place.  I need some tweaking at the left hip.  It causes pain to radiate the length of the sciatic nerve--hip, hamstring, side of knee, to the bottom and inward side of my foot.  Reminds me of my last months of pregnancy.  I am trying ibuprofen and even walked around doing laundry with an ice wrap.  Not good as I didn't notice it had fallen low off the wrap and was pretty much giving me a freezer burn.  Got to pay attention to my icing techniques.  This is marathon laundry day so I can't rest and ice.  Got to keep going, and going.  Will hopefully rest at the park while my kids have piano.  How do you get a hip back in place without seeing a chiropracter?  Or how much does Dr. Brady cost?  I don't have an insurance that covers chiropractic care.   Thanks for any advice. 

Ran a simulation heat run at 2pm for only two miles.  I was too busy with kids off to school, car repairs and cleaning to get a run in early plus the muscle relaxant flexeril put me in a daze the first half of the day I was lucky to get any tasks done.    I will definitely not take that med close to the marathon.  Benadryl last year was bad enough.  My first mile nice and easy 9:45 and last mile8:41.  Hip feels normal I think.  Apparently it is really relaxed.  I still feel slightly dazed.  I did ride my bike to school and back twice and to pick up my daughter then to pick up our car at the shop (6.5 miles).  New brakes and exhaust fixing up needed to pass inspection.  Already for the drive to SGM.  I can't believe it is getting to be the week mark.  The weather is a lot warmer than last year and it seems it will hold up.  That means one glass of water for my mouth and one for my body at the aid stations.  I don't do well in heat.  But the water bath helps.  Happy running!!!

1040am run (another warm weather simulation)--Brief warm up of 3 minutes before running my 5K route I mapped around my neighborhood a year ago.  Short run for I had some appointments to get to.  First mile I was thinking I sure hope this is faster than race pace (it was) cause while it felt fine I didn't think it could feel fine for 26.2 miles.  It is a hilly course so that made me more hopeful of my ability, but only time will tell.  Here goes:  mile 1:  7:08    Last 2.1 miles: 14:30 (I don't remember where mile marker two is so  I did a cumulative).  Total 5k time=  21:38.  With some figuring that meant my last two miles were at 6:54 pace.  Wow.  The 800s have paid off.  This time was faster than my Nestle 5K in June which is an easier course so I feel good about my effort.  My heart was skipping beats at the end probably due to sugary pancake syrup just before the run.   I like to run with not much in me for that reason.  Effort felt strong/hard but not all out.  So someday maybe I will do under a 21 minute 5K.  Maybe racing it will help my pace.  I am glad it is over.  Quick workout.  Brief cool down of 0.4 miles.  Now time to bask in laziness (and  in ice on  the darn left sciatic nerve), except for a 10 miler  on Saturday (I am going to go a lot slower than last Saturday) and a short tempo run next week and maybe 2x800 meters somewhere in there.  It should feel good to be over quick with speed workouts and cut the mileage way down.   Good luck to all my running blogging friends!!! 

Just biked to school and back twice (4 miles).  My headache is pretty intense.  I describe it as burning pain to the back of the right side of my head that shoots up to the right side of my face and eye and down to my lumbar region of my back.  Intense burning.  It also goes down my right arm at times.  I just grit my teeth most days and fight hard not to be too concerned.  After many doctors I think my next step is chiropractic/acupuncture.  I am sure I brought this on with my run yesterday as I described in an earlier post about my brain malformation.  This is just bad timing to get this intense.  I will still run 10 tomorrow.   I won't let this get me.  It just gets old.    I have read a lot of you bloggers are getting stomach trouble.  I would recommend avoiding food handled by others (going out to eat) the next week.  Big bad bugs are out there and they don't stop food handlers from working with your food.  I sound paranoid but it is so true.  Once I had a waitress tell me as she was waiting on us that she felt awful worse than ever (she sounded it too) but couldn't call in.  Scary.  I tried to remain calm.  I am nurse by the way on a NICU so we are pretty obsessive there.  Hence my philosophy on eating out and staying healthy the week before a marathon. Happy eating!!!  Oh and take some probiotics!!!

If only I had a garmin I would stop this extra mileage problem.  It is just that when I envision a route and think it is only 10 miles then get to where it is about halfway and realize the way back is longer and we our over time oops, oh well.  But this darn knee hip problem is really acting up.  Sooo  I am going to a chiropracter my friend Melanie swears by that works out of Provo.  My hip is definitely the problem but then my knee throbs.  The piriformis muscle is the issue (deep in the hip).  A good wack to the hip (back in place) oughta do it.  Everything feels good except the leg which pain is not easy to run fast thru.  So we slowed it down a bit to help relax my hip.  Average pace 8:30.  Then off to lagoon  with my family for we had free tickets for food and parking and the park thru my father-in-laws work.  It was pretty much marathon amuzement day (I don't do any wild rides due to my headaches).  12 hours of continous walking.  I was exhaused that I finally slept for 7 hours straight.  I am still dealing with insomnia so this was good for me.  Plan for this week:  Rest, Recover, Refocus, Remember.  If I can take the time to do all this I should be ready.