All it takes is all you've got

5 miles in 8:30 pace

Just couldn't seem to get going today.  After the snow fell lightly all weekend the sidewalks were covered in chunky frozen snow and it really agitated my right adductor and hip to run in it so I just came home after 2 miles and did lots of hip stuff and stretching.  Got some ART treatment on the area around noon and attempted another run on the treadmill at 4pm.  Just couldn't get into a groove and feel comfortable.  My form was off and I just wasn't up for pushing through. 

5.5 miles in 7:17 pace

Happy Birthday to Aaron!  Got up and made french toast, fed the kids and got them dressed and ready to go for the day so Aaron could sleep in.  He woke up around 8 am and took the kids to the gym with him so he could work out and I could go running.  

After talking to my ART guy yesterday about whether or not it is still possible for me to build up to do Boston, I decided I should avoid running on uneven, icy surfaces and seek out flat, dry surfaces.  So this morning I left for my run fired up to go do some interval work.  Decided I would do 3X10 minutes at 6:20-6:30 pace instead of doing the group workout in Boulder since that workout was a lot of shorter, faster stuff run on crusty trails.  

Warmed up 20 minutes, stretched, and did some easy strides.

Ran 10 minutes at 6:18 pace. Noticed that my left hamstring felt pretty tight and my right adductor was not liking the speed either.  Jogged for 3 minutes.  I started the next interval more conservatively at 6:33 pace and went for 4 minutes, but my form just kept getting uglier and uglier and I became overly frustrated so I just stopped.  And walked.  Lots of thoughts flooded my mind, mostly discouraging, dispairing ones.  As I continued walking I noticed I was limping again.  Not limping at the beginning of the run, but limping now.  Great.  I've done it again.  

Maybe I just need to stop pushing the pace altogether.  Maybe I need to stop hoping I can get it together quickly enough to run Boston and just take my time getting over this injury.  Its obvioulsy not willing to heal as quickly as I hoped it would and I keep trying to push it and it just comes back.  I really want this injury to heal and I also really want to run Boston but I'm feeling very mentally fatigued from trying to train when my body is not cooperating.  Maybe I should just set other non-running related goals to keep me motivated in life in general and when my body gives me the green light to progress in running again, I can do so.  

For now I'm just going to try not to think about it and have a fun time with Aaron on his Birthday.  He agreed to go to Chuck-e-Cheese with the kids tonight (Abe's idea) but I think we'll eat dinner at home and just go there to play since their pizza is hardly edible.  The kids and I made him a yummy cake and I think I will take one freebie slice of cake on my husband's 30th birthday since its almost the end of my no sugar month, and I haven't taken any freebies yet.

After two days of no exercise, I finally got out to the gym this morning for an hour on the elliptical and about 20 minutes of hip/core work.  Felt good to move my body.  Right adductor still painful with certain movements, but the elliptical seems okay.

At the end of every year I compile the 2-3 hours of family video we've taken throughout the year and make a 10-15 minute highlight video.  I usually get it done in December and post it on our family website, but I slacked this year and have not done it yet.  SO I've finally decided to stop procrastinating it and get 'er done.  Over the past couple of days I've cleaned out my video folder on my computer, put all the old video on our external hard drive, and captured all the 2009 video into a new project file.  Now I have the task of making a fun, short video out of 2.5 hours of footage.  It usually takes me 50-60 hours of work.  So that is my distraction from running since I'm injured and I could use a healthy, fun distraction.  Here is the video I made last December, highlighting 2008.  Stay tuned for the 2009 video to be released shortly...