Believe to Achieve

Thought I could be up for an 18 miler but I am having a lot of hamstring (sciatica and lower back related) pain that it is funny that I even ran one mile nevermind 14!!  I am soooooo stupid but I just had to detox the four chocolate dipped oreos and several more pounds of sweets I haven't eaten all week.  I am so done with treats right now.   I was VERY sluggish on the mill because I went to bed without my usual treat.  I ate dinner at 7 pm and was quite hungry at 6am at the rec center.  I really thought there was no way.  I wore an ace bandage around my lower back-- a wide BRIGHT orange one.  It helped secure my back but my breathing became irradic and my heart rate seemed higher than normal.  As I removed the ace bandage 10 miles into my run  I realized it wasn't ordinary ace bandage but  one dipped in latex.  I was having an allergic reaction to the ace bandage as I sweated tons and it leached into my lower back's pores.  My heart rate took hours to come down to baseline (54).  I was having a hard time catching my breath for two hours after two.   Weird.  Okay...so this is what I ran.....8:27, 8:13, 8:00, 7:53, 7:47, 7:41, and 7:35.   Reset TM get a drink of water.  AP here 7:53.   Then 7:30, 7:24, 7:19, 7:13 and 0.1 at 7:08.   Attack worse the faster I was going.  Obviously since I was already taxing my system.  I decided it just wasn't wise to continue with the increasing pace so I stopped the TM got a drink of water and stretched briefly.  Then got on for 3 easy at AP 7:41.   1 % incline for entire run.  AP for 14.1 = 7:41.  I slowly walked over to the weights and managed several minutes of upper body but my heartrate was pounding out my chest and I called it quits. 

notice the four hours sleep.Yup up til 1am to work by 6am.  coma morning at work.  luckily patients have cleared out and only a few moms and babies around for the new year.  I worked until 1230 and came home utterly comatose and in shock with the cold temps with a looming sun.  seriously????  My leg also is in the most pain it has EVER been in-- the whole hip to hamstring in some sort of painful burning spasm.  I started out with an ace bandage around my upper thigh and removed it within 20 minutes as it was suffocating me.  The pain was so intense that  I couldn't tell if I were that cold or not.  I have never had such a tight leg in spasm in all my life.  Ibuprofen didn't touch it along with half a pain pill last night.  This sucks.  I am almost 44 and it show!!!!   I was able distract myself with NEAR death car/runner incidents and crunchy snow afoot and running to what I feel safer ground  is from the watch out you may crash and burn terrain.  Kinda of over the meadown and through the woods....kind of run.  This way and that up and around Mt Timponogos temple and into the sweat freezing temps.  Gotta love it.  I tried to predict my pace.  The effort was there in this INVERSION THICK air so I should be pleased with the 8:16 AP for 10.03 miles.  Mileage and pace hidden the entire run.  So works for me.  Now to thaw out.  Happy New Year!!!

saucony fives, flats.  My feet are tired of elevation runs in the nikes.  Flats give my feet a break and the TM is soft enough. Plan was an easy 10 miler then my neighbor got on the TM next to me and said she was running some hills.   I joined her when she did them-- she was running 8 percent for 1 minute.  I had already run a mile.  I started at 8:20 pace and increased my pace by 0.1 mph every half mile til I got to 7:24 pace (five miles) and then laddered down but dropped pace slower on the way down-- so dropped by 0.1 miles every mile (instead of 1/2mile as before) so my pace stayed at a faster pace and got to 7:41 when I reached 10 miles but added some speed play at the end to 9.5 to 10mph for the last 0.2 miles.  For hills (my neighbor left after she ran two hills with me) I would alternate my increased pace every half mile with the opposite half mile increasing the incline to 6 percent (BASICALLY every 1/4 mile I was EITHER increasing the pace or running that pace at 6% for a minute the next 1/4 mile, work it !!!  ).  I would run exactly a minute at 6 percent. The tm takes about 15 seconds to get there.   SO in the entire run I ran a total of 17 minutes of hills at one point running two of the minutes at 7:24 pace.  Majority of the hills were run at 7:30 to 7:35 pace.  First 7.8 miles in 60:04 when the TM changes to cooldown mode for two minutes so  I reset the tm.  Got on for a few more hills after my first water break and then ended up running the last 2.2 miles at 7:30 AP to cooldown (with speed play as above for the 0.2).    I started stretching a made the mistake of peeking in on a power pump class.  My neighbor ( a different one) happily grabbed me and got me to do the last 45 minutes of the class.  Oooooo baby.  Work it!!  I need to do this class again.  I am so not strong!!!  Especially my abs!!!  Squats o'rama.  Hope I can move tomorrow.  So far I can't tell I went.  Time will tell.

Last night Courtney and I went to see Les Miserables at 630pm.  We pretty much cried through the entire movie.  We had the lower section all to ourselves.  It was very nice.  I couldn't fall asleep until past 11pm and when I got up I was so sore in my lower back, arms and legs it was funny.  I dragged myself to the rec center not knowing what to expect.  Plan was 10 tm miles but I changed it to some on the track and some on the tm and then I was like "why not just run all the miles on the track and be done already".  I didn't stop once but was very dry in the mouth by mile 5.  The heater was on blowing in my face every lap very dry air.  I was the only person running "fast" on the track.  I lapped everyone at least a dozen times.  And I was running easy.  I counted my laps and didn't wear my watch but waited for the clock at the track to turn to 8:10 am and started.  I ran until I ran 5 x 13 laps (13= 2 miles).  I would reset my "fingers" every 13 laps so I couldn't lose count.  My first two miles AP was 8:14.  Man alive was I stiff as a board.  So funny from my cross training yesterday and earlier this week.  My AP was 7:56 by mile 10 just going easy.   6.5 laps for a mile is a lot of turning but not as bad as some tracks I have heard other bloggers running on.  I really wanted to change directions as my left IT band has been bugging me and the direction was turning to the left.  I really needed a NONtreadmill run though.  The treadmill makes me want to pick up the pace. On the track I just ran by how I felt.  Recovery run.  Oh yah-- helping my daughter with her science project-- two mile time trials of 9 kids ranging from 10 to 14 years.  Today while the time trial was going on (my daughter was tallying the laps)  I tried out a new elliptical machine at 4pm and did that for 8.5 minutes. Okay everytime I do the elliptical which is not much at all it take me twice as long to go a mile.  In this time I only got to 0.45 miles!!!!  I was wearing my clothes and high heeled shoes but really??????

saucony 5s.  Could not in this weather run outside before work.  Worked all day. Ate extremely poorly for me.  Cheeseburger and fries just sounded good today.  Topped off with a large macadamian nut chocolate chip cookie.  GEEZ!!!  Plan was to go home and avoid taking my daughter to the rec center.  I told my husband to take her but he wouldn't.  So I got home at 715pm and got dressed in a hurry to help my daughter out in her exercise plans.  I hurried so I couldn't feel the intense fatigue  I feel at the end of a shift as I enter my house.  I tried to "talk" up the run to myself on my drive home.  Slowly I revived my brain to the thought--- run 8:30 the 8:00 then 7:30 etc... for miles...thinking 8 miles....but Courtney saved me!!!  Yahoo she only wanted to workout for 30 minutes!!  Ah what a relief.  My run turned to a 4 miler.  That was a LOAD off my mind.  So instead I increased my pace by 30 seconds every HALF mile.  Like this (1%)-- 8:27, 8:00, 7:30, 7:00 ap (7:03 one 1/4, 6:58 last 1/4) , 6:31, then ladder back down-- 6:58, 7:24 x 2 miles with some pick ups to 7:13 pace and a fast finish to 6:31 for about 0.1 miles.  Mentally it was easier to do this then one pace the whole time.  After going to 6:31 pace everything else felt easy.  LET ME TELL YOU I WAS SUPER WORRIED --- I was about to hurl and MY LEGS LOOK GIGANTOUS!! LOTS OF SWELLING IN THEM.  NO JOKE!!!  Pitting EDEMA, YIKES!!  They are still a little sore from the Squats and my cousin visiting did not help. She makes me eat lots of crap I normally would NOT eat.  AP 7:21 for 5 miles (SNUCK in one more mile, so ME)  215 foot elevetion gain :D .   Sweat turned to ice in 10 seconds outside.  Gotta love this weather-- if you were a Polar Bear of course.

-6 degrees. 15.48 miles. slowly conquered the elements.  13 miles with Rachel running ny half in pleasant grove. ran to and from the start/finish. lots of thin layers to keep "warm". almost lost my nose. 9:00AP. some wicked uphills. some windchill.  good company.  three stops no watch stops. ALIVE!! need i say more. oh no water and no fuel except my fat.