Patience; the new endurance sport.

It's astonishing how quickly miniscule details add up and change everything. The diminished daylight at 6:00 a.m., a prolonged flu/cold, school starting, an injury....  I am weak and injured. And now so many unwelcome details occupy the diminished privacy and enjoyment of the most pristine and beloved time of my day. I had a fantastic summer did I not?  Didn't I soak up the beautiful Utah mornings?  Didn't I challenge myself to run long, fast, and hard?  Didn't I make new friends and give myself tangible, exciting new challenges?  Didn't I marvel at the beauty of Spring and Summer?  Did I not flourish in new landscapes and climates?  I did.  But the table has quickly turned.  My body's calling the shots right now, forcing my mind into a time-out.  I have a pain deep in my hipflexor/quad which started the 23rd of July, and has since become worse. Also, I am also trying to recover from a prolonged case of strep throat and a cold which I caught somewhere in DC.  Once home, I called Sarah to make my a running date for my first Friday home-- phlegm and all.  She suggested that running with a 7 month pregnant lady would be 'easy.' But don't believe her....  It was therapeutic thought getting out there with a friend.   And while I was pretty tired, I didn't hurt afterwards.  Sasha suggested running slower and less to see if the inury will pass.  I agree. I did that with a tendon pain in my knee last year and worked carefully through it.  If it does get worse during this week of less and slower running, I'll find an ortho doc and make a better plan b (bicycling, swimming, strength training-- I know, icky).  I was complaining to Sasha (as I should be ramping up in these next weeks for St. George).  I said "I can't believe the monumentally bad timing of this -- I don't have time!"  to which he replied "Yes you do.  You have your whole life."  He's right.  This may be inconvenient, and it may just ruin this one race, but my primary goal, above all else has always been to JUST KEEP RUNNING throughout my lifetime.  So I must respect and appreciate my body for what it does for me, and be patient through this process.

I got on to blog my run and saw the sweet, encouraging comments on my last entry.  It made me tear up a little. Thanks you guys.  Today I ran really slowly, but gave it an extra mile (once warmed up, I feel fine).  When I got home I ice packed my thigh for like an hour.  But like Marion, I wonder what's going on with my butt....I mean, my hips/butt and whatever goes on in there to keep your legs attatched to your body.  I did feel better today than I have in a while, but I can't think of enough adjectives to describe my legs-- lead? bronze? dead weight?  I am not one one ever takes my health for granted.  I thank the universe often for my strength, but more so during times like this.  As consolation and reward for gettng out there, both yesterday and today were breathtakingly gorgeous mornings.  More like September than August.  The horizon was light pink bleeding softly upward into the baby blue sky, with that gigantic full moon sitting fat and heavy over the alfalfa fields.  The trees and fields are so green, and the air so light with a touch of a breeze. I am greatful for every day my skin is touched by the breeze and my eyes are met with the serene beauty of a calm morning.  I am grateful to be out there, that plus, there's a lot less mosquitoes lately :)

If you are wondering where the comments have gone, I had to cut and paste these three entries from where I accidentally submitted them with last week's dates. So, when you cut and paste text, the blog comments do not follow.   But getting the dates correctly entered on the current events feels important to me right now.  So... in spite of the weeks of 8+ hours of sleep I am still uttlerly exhausted. I think I have finally iced/ rested away the major pain in my thigh.  But I can tell that I've had the crap beaten out of me mentally, emotionally, and physically in the last 2 weeks.  It's not that I got sick or injured that matters so much as the timing of it.  It's a major blow to my confidence that I'll have the strength to do at least 4 long runs before the first weekend in October, and still recover my stamina for endurance and strength for speed.   Regardless,  I have  been enjoying the cool, moquitoless mornings taking it easy at 9:40'-10:15's.  It can always be worse.  So I shall not complain.

I don't even want to know how slow I'm running right now, so I ditched the Garmin this morning.  But just to remind me how I'm doing is Sasha, cheerfully inviting me to run back to the house to run a few extra miles with Sarah-- as I used to do just for fun on Thrusdays and Fridays.  Then there's MattK, gliding effotlessly fast down the trail "good morning" he says lifting his hand in a friendly wave. Good morning for who? I think.  Then the three lady woggers PASS ME UP from behind with their arm-swinging power-walking.  No, not really, they didnt' pass me,  they were actually walking toward me.   But they probably COULD have passed me by.  The great news is, the phlegm has mostly vacated my lungs and I can now breath alright, and my energy is a little higher.  My thigh feels ok, but my butt and hips are still either tight or fatigued.  I may just try a long run on Saturday.  I'll see how tommorrow goes.  It has now been a month since I vowed to eat no refined sugar or flour, and no choclate (not even the pure dark stuff).  I have had a slip up only once or twice (hey, when a five star chef at a beach-side five star restauraunt in Nantucket offers you a complimentaly portion of his special new flourless choclate cake truffles with huile d' orange, you really can't say no, now can you?  Besides which, it didn't even contain any refined flour).  I've been back on the wagon especially since being home this week.  I wish I could sing accolades of eating pure sources of protein and complex carbohydrate, but I got sick and injured while doing so (it must be the missing chocloate).  JK, truth is, I'll probably doing this for a while to really get a feeling how well it works or how to make it work right.  A by-product of doing this however is that I've even been off most meat. It it just hasn't seemed appealing.  Anyone got a good serving suggestion for Mung Beans? 

 My mind was wandering this morning.  The dry coolness in the air reminds me of my first September in Utah.  I first came to, and fell in love with Utah during the winter ( I adored the skiing).  So when I returned the next school year, late summer and Fall was like a bonus.  This morning was cool, but I kept hitting little pockets of warm air that collect near the river under the trees. I love this weather and the clear blue pre-dawn sky.  I worked a little harder today (still sans Garmin). I tried to remember and practice the gait that I developed when I ran with Catherine and Amanda.  They were both shorter than me by 4 inches, and they each have this short little quick-step.  We always averaged 8:30's.  So I did that for a while, but also stopped to stretch a few times.  The exhaustion feels like it's diminishing, but I still have a lot of tightness and am still a sore in my thigh--but it really feels like it's getting better.  I was remembering the last time I had a satisfying fast run. It was my last day in Rhode Island.  I took an ibuprofen and hit it hard.  It was beautiful sea-side running on the cliffwalk above a sparkling Blue Ocean.  I still reflect on those moments.  I loved the morning post-run swimming. Those were calm beautiful days. It's nice to have those memories. But I feel like that was a million years ago.  This morning, after four miles on my own, I came home, got the kids out of bed, fed them breakfast/made their lunches, saw them off to school on their bike's, and then ran up to Sarah's to meet her for her four.  Running with Sarah is just like eating candy. Not that the miles or the effort don't count, but it's just so darn therapeutic.   Yeah!  It's Friday! 

I did it.  I ran 14 miles this morning with Catherine.  I could not have done it alone.  She kept me entertained (or rather, I kept her entertained) by giving her every detail of my recent vacation. But since I got so sick and the pain in my hip/thigh, my endurance and stamina has taken a hit. I needed to get my confidence back and 14 was the right distance.  Last time I ran a long run was 17 miles on July 25th.  I haven't run  more than 12 since. To make matters worse,  I've missed two long runs in a row (today should have been 18, but oh well).  I have minimal pain in my thigh and hip.  So if recovery and this week's running go well, I may  not  be too far behind myself. We'll see.  I can't aford be too ambitious right now. This mornig was very cool up the canyon.  I love the cooler weather, but am already melencholy about the passing of Summer. But, what a beautiful morning.  I hope Hobble Creek goes well for everyone.  I can't wait to read the race reports!  Good luck everyone!