You've got to want it to win it

This morning before workout I went to go see Hanah to see if I would be running today.  She told me I'd be seeing the doctor later so I just cross trained.  I started with 40 minutes on the bike because the pool wasn't open yet and then I went and did a Pfitzinger workout in the pool because the group was doing an interval workout today which I missed out on.  In the pool I did 5 minutes warmup and then a ladder of 1 minute on, 1 0ff, 2 on 1 off, 3 on 2 off, 4 on 2 off, 5 on 2 off, 5 on 2 off, 4 on 2 off, 3 on 2 off, 2 on 1 off, 1 on 1 off.  Then I went to the training room and took an ice bath for 15 minutes and I'd have to say it is the coldest ice bath I have ever taken!  After that I went to the doctor's office.  He doesn't think that I have a stress fracture in my femur like last time, but tomorrow I am getting an MRI of my pelvis and he's reviewing it Wednesday.  He also said that he might want footage of me running because he can't figure out why I got injured seeing as my bone density is healthy and I was coming down in my mileage.  He thinks it may be mechanics so that's what we're trying to find out.

This morning after weights I went to Steiner and did a pool running workout.  I did 5 minutes warmup, then 6 sets of 2:30 on with :30 off, and then 5 minute cooldown.  I'm getting an MRI today and the doctor will look at it tomorrow.  As I was leaving weights I ran into Kep and he said that he is planning on me going to Arkansas and finishing the season unless the results from the MRI yield something big.  

This morning I went back to the doctor to get the results of the MRI.  Fortunately, I do not have a stress fracture! :)  It turns out that there is a disc between some of my lower vertebrae in which the fluid has drained so the disc is protruding a bit and has been hitting a nerve.  I can still run so that is very good news.  I am not supposed to do squats for a while but to work on core instead.  I went to the training room and did some core and then went to the locker room to meet the team for practice.  We were up at the track today.  We did about a 15 minute warmup and then our drills and strides.  Then we changed shoes.  The workout was six 1000s and then four 200s.  I was with Hil.  Kep marked spots on the straightaways coming out of the curves where we ran each lap on the turf so that we would have a softer surface some of the time.  Hil and I took turns leading.  We hit all of our at even paces and the times for each were pretty close.  We hit 3:56, 3:52, 3:52, 3:54, 3:53, 3:54.  We had 45 seconds recovery between each.  On the 200s we had 2 minutes between each, and I hit 37, 37, 37, 35.  Then I did 8 laps cooldown on the track to finish.

This morning I got up and ran 4 easy miles on 1400e to 1700s and back 4 times.  My Garmin wouldn't turn on or I would have gone on a more exciting run.  After that I went to Steiner and biked for 40 minutes.  Later I went to the training room and did more core exercises before going down to the airport with the team for Arkansas!  

This morning we went to the course to check it out and do an easy premeet run.  We ran most of the course, but walked the last half mile.  My hips were pretty sore the first little while but by the time we were done I felt great.  Then we had 4 strides to do so Nikki and I did one into the finish and then we did 2 coming out from the start and then our last one into the finish again.  Then we did a few light drills.  Back at the hotel I iced a bit and I'll probably do estem later.

This morning after arriving at the race course and getting our tent set up we had a little time to relax before starting our warmup.  We warmed up on a trail to the side of the park where the course was, we went out 7 minutes and back.  Then we went to see where our box was, we had number 12 which was at a good spot because it wasn't on the same side as the fence where the course narrows after the start.  We did our drills and strides there, and then went up to change our shoes and get back to the line.  When the race started I got out with Nikki and Bekah.  For the first little bit I was with both of  them but eventually I passed Nikki and didn't see her the rest of the time.  Bekah was slightly ahead of me as we went around the first turn and up the only hill in Arkansas.  At the mile where there is a slight downhill I got ahead of her but she caught back up and was ahead of me again.  The whole race it seemed like I was just passing people back and forth.  I could see a few girls in purple ahead of me so I made it my goal to pass them and I worked on it the whole time.  At 2 miles I was at 11:45.  After doing the lap around the starting field I passed some of the USU girls and that's when I finally felt like I was in race mode.  For the rest of the race (which wasn't that much anyway) I pretended that everyone was cheering for me.  Looking ahead of me at the large pack between me and Bekah I thought to myself "We don't need all these points" so I passed a lot of them with the motivation of lowering the team score.  Getting back up to the top of the hill before going down I knew there was only a half mile left then so I also made the goal to pass a lot of people going down.  I finally caught two of the girls in purple and then on the final stretch I outkicked the other girl in purple and finished just ahead of her.  After everyone was done we changed shoes back and went for a short cooldown.  My hip/back didn't hurt at all during the race but I could feel it flare up a little bit afterwards.  I'll just continue to use the estem on the way home and next week and hopefully I can get back to higher miles without pain.