I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

No miles, just babying this shin until I have no pain. Since some professional advice given to me was that I am bordering pulling a tendon/muscle off of my tibia at this point and causing a nice little stress fracture. THIS is the tendon I'm having issues with. I will not be running until I have no pain.

The upside? Today feels SO much better than Saturday and Sunday and I haven't even downed my vitamin I yet! I am hopeful for a Saturday run, and maybe even Thursday at this point, but I will NOT push it. SGM is too important to me right now to play around with a crazy injury like this. I'm putting the "you can do nothing to help yourself in the last 2 weeks before a marathon - you can only hurt yourself" to the test. My legs know what to do, I just need to get them there healthy. I am enjoying the sleep though :)

Spin class - good hard effort, evident by the pool I could almost swim in under the bike. I don't understand how all the other people in the class don't sweat a puddle like I do! I go to change to get in the pool and my clothes are as wet as if I'd just jumped IN the pool. I'm a sweaty monkey!

Masters swim class. Good full hour of drills, speed, pulls and kicks. I like not having the monotony of just swimming and counting laps. Best news of the day: I can do flip turns! I remembered from last week and only missed a couple the whole time in class. I did have one really bad one at the end - got really disoriented and practically crashed into someone - oops. Still need some work :)

Hopes are high that I will get through this injury and still have a great SGM. My mileage goal for the year might just be out now, but I'm trying to put it in perspective and shooting for the most important goal for myself!

I'm getting tired of not being able to enter miles, but I'm not tired because I get to sleep in the morning! :)

No spin class this morning so it was just me dripping all over the floor and the bike in the corner of the gym. They don't let you use the spin room if there isn't a class, they have one lone bike in a corner of the track. Nice views out the window though. Too bad all the track walkers had to stare at my butt every lap! suckers.

Good full hour of hard work and cardio pumping like mad! Had to volunteer at the school, so that was all I had time for.

Good news, no great news is that I don't even think about my shin walking now! The PT seems to think it is more of a nerve problem than anything, which is even better news. I've got my exercises to stretch out the nerve in the sheath so that it doesn't cause so much pain and back stretches to help at the source. I was kind of skeptical about this 'nerve' thing until last night I did the stuff and MAGIC! Seriously, the pain was GONE! I could walk, jump, skip with no pain. Crazy weird I tell you - crazy! Still some tendon/muscle damage which is most likely causing the swelling that is making the nerve react, so I must still be careful, but it's nice to know my bones aren't crumbling away. I've got got a good case of the nerves.

I think if things go well today/tonight with stretching etc that I will try just a short 3 mile run tomorrow morning. I will NOT push through pain and will stop if I feel any, but I'm hopeful that there will not be any or very little.

Bagged the run today. Not because I feel like the leg couldn't handle it (I think the leg is about 90%), but because I'm lazy :) I got to get wined and dined with hubby last night at Ruth's Chris. Oh SO yummy!!! Filet with blue cheese crust, asparagus and broiled tomatoes. Seriously yum! I just couldn't handle the $1500 price tag that came with it! :) Glad the company is treating.

So, got home late and then since I've been spoiled with sleeping I just wanted to sleep. I will do the BBK workout tomorrow at a normal pace. Always better to have people waiting for you to get up!

Went to the gym and did spin class - This teacher I like better than most and it was definitely hard. She did a good 10+ minute hill climb with high resistance, ahhh make it hurt so good!

Masters swim class - 60 minutes hard workout. I've found that on flip turns when I'm pushing myself I can't breathe! I just can't push breath out that long. I'm sure the lifeguard at the end of the lane thinks I'm drowning as I come up and gasp for air every lap when we're going at a faster pace. Timed a 200 today - 4:06, with nearly drowning myself twice on flip turns trying to get under the lap lane. Yeah...still working on that one.

Got up and did the BBK workout. They had a 5 mile tempo on the docket, but I just wanted to make sure I still knew how to run and that my leg would be okay. Well, it's not better (from yesterday), but it's not worse either and luckily, I still know how to run.

Ran with Cheryl and it was a great run. Nice to be out and it felt more comfortable than I would've anticipated for the resulting AP. Cheryl kept a nice pace and we'd ebb and flow a bit on it, but I didn't care. I was just happy to keep up and have some company. She tried to shoo me off and told me to feel free to go faster, but I didn't want to go faster - I was just letting her set the pace.

Did a short cool down to round out to 6 miles. Stretched well and headed home. You know, I'm really sick of how cold it is! I have to crank up the heater in the car to keep from shivering and then wrap up in a warm blanket at home to stop shivering. I really like warm...really.

AP: 8:32 splits:  8:45, 8:44, 8:16, 8:28, 8:12, 8:46

Went to the gym and tagged along with Kelli's arm burner workout. Every muscle group 4X then we went out to the mats and I tried to breathe while Kelli made planking look easy. 60 seconds middle/side/side then 25 push-ups (yeah, did 'em girly style) - 4X. A nice chat and stretch to finish things off.

Oh, how I love taper time!

Five K Friday

Couldn't decide what to do today. I need to do something. I'm getting restless, so I decided a good 5K would be the plan to loosen things up and then just ellip the rest of the hour -stretch and call it good. 

Started slow, first 1/4 mile at 10mm then the remaining at 9:13 - actually felt better to pick it up a little. 2nd mile 8:34, 3rd mile 7:53 (hopeful MPish) then a 7:00 pace for the last .10 to finish it all off. The MP mile felt worse than it should have. Maybe it was the TM, maybe it was me, maybe it was the pain, maybe it was my brain, I just kept thinking how there is no way in heaven or h$&& I can run this fast for 26.2 miles and I'm crazy to think so!

Why is it that self-doubt, depression, anxiety and pain have to be apart of the taper toward the goal you've been shooting for and training towards for the last 7 months of your life! I'm sick of it! I want a new brain.

AP for the 5K was around 8:30

Finished up with 30 min on the elliptical at a good consistent effort, then a good calf stretching session. Funny thing is, the shin is feeling better by the day (not 100%, but better...maybe 80ish?) and I couldn't even feel it on the elliptical or when I got off, but my PF has kicked my butt again. It aches - sore and painful. uggghhhh. SO tired of this!!! I just want to get to the start line feeling good and not on drugs. C'mon body - we can do this, right?

Had a great run on the PRT with Smooth, Slick, Jun, Toby, Karen, Wendy, Jon & Kelly, and I think Wendy's husband John. I didn't realize everyone else was smarter than me and only running 8, so I'd planned on 10.9 to even out miles this week (okay, the trail is 5.5 out and back, so I was just giving myself a little break - I'm not THAT crazy). 

Jun and I just chatted our way up to the 3 mile fountain and we all regrouped then ran to mile 4 as one big conglomerate. I love it! Everyone just chatting with everyone and running along like we're at a party. Well, mile 4 comes and everyone else stops and turns around. I really wanted my 10.9, and Jun was willing to tag along so off we went. 

Man that guy keeps a wonderfully smooth pace! even on the uphills where I would start to pull back, he would keep pace and surge to the top and crest and recover perfectly. What an awesome runner! And we weren't even on trails :) Unfortunately he took the 'short cut' home and from about 7.5 on I was solo.

Got to the drinking fountain around 8 miles and I was done. Wishing I had only run 8. Feet and legs aching, stomach ready to throw up, wanted to lay down and sleep - yeah, Rachel pity party! But, I knew the only way back was to just get going. How in the world am I going to run faster than this for 18 more miles next week? I AM crazy. Finally at mile 10 the pity party/excuse making time was over and I decided to just run. Well, guess what. I picked up the pace a little and I forgot a lot about the aches and pains and just settled in. What a difference making my brain turn off does.

I finished just before the park so I got to walk the last .15ish back and I saw everyone loading up cars and heading off. I'd missed not only good chat time during miles, but even the after party. Why did I need 11 miles again? dumb.just.dumb. Smooth left a TON of food for me though - I mean, I know I'm big, but I don't really eat THAT much. Good thing my kids do :)

So, all in all it wasn't quite the confidence builder I had hoped it would be, but it wasn't all that bad either. I didn't eat or drink anything before the run or have any fuel, so that could be a lot of my lightheaded/upset stomach issues. It wasn't hard, but it certainly didn't seem as easy as I'd hoped either. I really need to just get rid of this pain this next week. It MUST be my first priority. When I run in pain I think about every step and it's a huge mind trick, I just need to learn to let go and run. I CAN do this, I just need to plug in and believe it.

AP: 9:06 splits: 9:34, 9:26, 9:08, 9:30, 8:50, 8:50, 8:50 (3 miles with Jun - really? I've never ran that consistently in my life. I'm tellin' ya - the guys a machine!), 8:57, 9:15, 9:19 (pity party), 8:25 (settled in!).