Denouement

Ran 6.22 in 50 min on the tm.  Started at 7.0 speed, increased to 7.5 for the bulk of it, went to 7.6 with 10 min to go, 7.7 with 5 min to go.  Walking on the wild side.  No pain.  There is soreness in the area to the touch from massage-bruisiness.  And every once and a while that side feels different, but I am watching closely and think it is not going to return how it was (unless hard running does it, let's keep our fingers crossed).   Core and weights.  Six pull ups.

AM: easy 30 min on the tm

noon:  Follow up with orthopaedic specialist to get MRI results: there is no stress fracture, which is great.  The only abnormality showing from the MRI is some liquid around my tendon.  I will quote the MRI report: "The anterior tibial tendon, the most medial and the largest to the anterior tendons, is normal in size and signal intensity.  It is adjacent to the marker.  A rim of fluid is noted surrounding the tendon suggestive of tenosynovitis."    That's the deal. The doctor said I could do a hard workout on it, with less than full quantity, but then said it would be better to wait a day or two more for hard running, since the risks of it flaring up again is greater than the benefit of the workout this close to the race.  So I stuck to the elliptical,

PM:  way PM.  This workout started at 7:45, way too late, but had to do it then, so that's that.  20 min wu cd, then did 2 x18 min hard, 160 heart rate ave for the first 18 minutes, then 163 ave heartrate for the second 18, with 10 min rest between the two.  I plan on easy run tomorrow. 

Ran 45 min easy, then weights.  Core in the evening.  No pain :D

AM:  First hard workout since my pain started last Tuesday.  My coach wanted me to do it on the TM, and I hate doing workouts on the treadmill, especially intervals.  The workout was supposed to be 5-6 x 1600m at 10k pace, 2:30 rest, followed by 3 x 200m.  20 min warm up/ cool down.  Warmed up 19 minutes, then lots to stretching, then one minute easy.  Then ramped up the tm.   5:52 on the first one. I hate intervals on a TM because you have another 10 seconds of fast after your time is up because you are pushing a button 20 times to get the pace down to rest.  With 2:30 rest, I would have stopped completely then jogged a bit so its just different on a TM. After the first one I was already thinking to cut the workout to four times.  This should have been a cue to me to take the paces easier, but I made a novice mistake of not listening to my body.  Second one 5:48.  Third one was murder.  At .1 mile in I am having evil voices tell me to push the stop button. It is so big and so red and right there and 5:45 is a hard pace to do.  I fought the demons, I told myself I had 1,000 footstrikes to go and to get going, the first half mile was the worst.  After the third interval I hit the bathroom and got back to the treadmill by 2:00, ramped up, and started into #4.  I had the same strong feelings of wanting to quit, visualizing hitting the stop button, and I am ashamed to say I didn't last more than .15 miles, it was a disappointing first workout.  I cried to Paul when I got home.  I can't just quit in the marathon when things hurt!!!!

As the day went on I was able to see the half of the glass that was full.  Most importantly I had no pain.  Also, I had never done this workout on the TM, so I can't compare my track workouts to this one, and I just made a mistake of trying to hit the same paces as I do on the track, instead of relaxing and going by feel.  Also, a 1600 is 4 or so seconds off from a mile, and I was doing miles on the TM, so the paces I was trying to hit were even harder than I was thinking.  Did I mention I hate TM workouts, especially intervals, so I should have cut myself slack to compensate for that.  I am grateful to be hitting any miles sub 6:00.  Also, hopefully I won't need any 5:40 miles in my marathon.  If I do, I hope I don't need more than three ;)  8.87 miles total

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical, ave hr 128 (kept it around 135 once it ramped up) 

30 min on elliptical, then weights then ran 7.6k, to a park where JJ had a school picnic.  Then ran another 8 minutes to get back to the metro, and metroed to my massage appt.  This was my first run in the beautiful outdoors.  

JJ's teacher leant him a sweater for the field trip because it was "cold".  Ha!  It was 72-75F.  It is hard to remember I am the odd-ball for being in shorts. 

Last dress rehearsal.  10 mile run with last two at marathon pace.   I started the run at noon to mimic my race.  It was 25C--77F, so warmer than my race will be, current forecast is 15C for the high--59F, but that could change quite a bit, whatever the high is, it will be during the race, since the race starts at noon, and will end for me before 2:46 in the afternoon.

Started nice and easy, first 5k pace was 4:37, the next was 4:31, in this 5k I ran into a biker who stopped right in front of me.  I landed softly into his backpack, grateful that my first bike crash was a gentle one.  Good thing I didn't wear music today, there were many bikers out.  Then 4:25 for the 3k til I started the 2 miles at marathon pace. 3.23k in 12:30, or 3:53/6:15 pace.  Almost got ran over by a series of bikers on a tight turn in the middle of the fast bit.  Felt good.  Am excited to run my marathon in cool temps.

Core workout later.