Lulu's Challenge... rise from the ashes

Six miles with Bubbles in the hills. 1.5 mile warm up. 3 miles at tempo with every other 1/4 hard. 1.5 mile cool down. I felt very strong today. I ran with my group and passed a lot of people in the last mile of the tempo. People sure hate it when someone with a stroller passes them! I still have my intense headache - I think it has been 9 days. I went to the doctor today, and they had to give me a shot of pain medicine to make me functional. If I hadn't had the doctor appointment, I would have had to go to the ER. The pain was so intense, I am not even sure how I got to the doctor. It was a struggle. I go back Tuesday for follow-up. We talked about stress vitamins so I am going to get some today.

The run helped today. Bubbles was exceptionally happy today and was cracking herself up! Thank God for her and Honey (my husband)! Also, thank you for your well-wishes. I feel somewhat pathetic that I need them, but they are felt.

Very, very easy miles. I ran late tonight and alone. My head was telling me to stop at mile 2; it was aching so bad. I have this deal with my body when I am running: If something hurts, I acknowledge it. Then I don't allow myself to think about it for a mile. By mile three it was still hurting but I knew I could finish the run. I spent a lot of time telling myself it wasn't permanent damage and that it would feel better if I did the entire run. I do feel a bit better. My head still feels like it is in a vice (ear to ear) and like some one is pressing my eyebrows in front of my eyes and the back of my head into my neck.

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while so here is the start of the catch up (written Dec 3).

Bringing Home the Bacon. This is what my husband calls these races. He loves it. He stays home in bed and I go run and bring home a bunch of meat! First place in every age division is a Turkey and second place is sausages! These are wonderful Louisiana sausages. So my goal is these races are to find someone in my age division and follow them to the finish line. The sausage is the goal. Yes, second place is the ultimate goal. So I came home with two turkeys and one box of sausages.

In the one mile race which I ran at a conversational pace, I won my age division (shucks!) and got turkey #1. In the 5K, I came in second in my age division as planned and got the box of sausages (yea!). Then I won a second turkey as a door prize.

BTW, I threw up 5 times during the 5K! Yes 5 times! A girl ran by me during my 5th upchuck in the gutter and said some pretty ugly things to me. As my friend and I passed her in the last 1/4 mile like she was standing still, my friend said some ugly things to her only some of which is repeatable ie, "Pucker is passing you!"

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chillin' miles at marathon pace.

So here is the beginning of another week off. The stress of my work situation has made it so that I can hardly eat or keep anything down. I am taking a week off to chill.