Happy New Year, everyone! I've posted my 2007 year in review and 2008 goals on my personal blog, if anyone is interested. I like to look back at things and reflect a bit (this blog helps me do that), and also like make written goals at the beginning of the year. I definitely encourage everyone to write a down a set of goals for running and other things at the start of every year. Goals are very helpful, and way better than resolutions. ***************************** I woke up feeling pretty good today, about the same as I felt last night. I went to the gym around noon and did 30 minutes on the elliptical at a fairly easy effort. Going backward on the elliptical feels better than going forward, but neither really produce any pain. I got back from the gym, iced, iced some more, and then applied heat. Nothing had changed for the worse, so I tried a 4-mile run on the Planet Walk. The run went okay. Just okay, not great, but on the other hand I was able to complete the run. There was a bit of pain on tendon, which was a little discouraging. The key will be how my body reacts to this run. If it sets me back, then I know I will need to cancel Houston and just do elliptical for awhile longer. However, if it continues to improve despite increased activity and pounding, then I will know that the "healing snowball" has started, and racing will be likely. With my past experiences with injuries I've found that when the injury gets worse with a certain activity, then that activity just needs to be stopped. However, there is a point where the injury "turns the corner", and steadily improves everyday while doing activity. The healing cannot be stopped. I call this point the "healing snowball", since the rate of improvement snowballs on itself. The key is to identify when the healing snowball begins, because then running becomes safe again, and you can train through the injury and treat it at the same time. A good example of this would be Cody with his IT band problems. For a while, he wasn't able to run at all, but eventually he made a few adjustments, healed to a certain degree, and has been able since then to increase his mileage every week while simultaneously treating the injury. Hopefully I will be there myself soon. Tonight and tomorrow morning will reveal a lot. Until then, heat and ice! (Adrenaline: 18 miles)
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