Create.

30 minutes elliptical to loosen the legs

10 miles hillwork (pain gone, tightness considerably less)

- recovery pace, raised incline .5% every half mile through mile 5 and then came back down in the reverse increasing speed.

20 minutes elliptical backwards

12.6 miles with the Chumps. Had a good size group this morning -- so so so so so glad Smooth made it! :)

Unfortunately, had major leg problems and pain. STINK. I am glad the chumps were with me because they made me stop and walk. I walked an additional 4-5 miles home, Slick was kind enough to walk me with. Thank you so much Slick, you are a wonderful friend for whom I am extremely grateful. If I had not been with the group I know I would have continued to run through the pain until I got home. Hopefully their wisdom will save me some healing time. 

** I tried to run different paces to see if anything would help. Nothing. Dang. :(

_________

** 6 hours later:

Okay, after going through the "why can't my body handle this"  and "I am so stinkin' mad" phases I am feeling emotionally better. Here's the up side: last time I felt this type of pain was during my 22 miler before Boston. Last time I ran a whole 22 miles through it. This time, however, I only ran about half that. SO ... who knows ... maybe a week of rest is all I need! :)

I am SO SO SO glad everyone made me stop. Thanks Chumps!!!

___________

** Sunday morning:

Now that the swelling is starting to go down I don't think it is the same injury as before Boston. This might just be shinsplints. I just don't know.

1 mile swim

Busy but oh so fun day with the family!!

Didn't have much time to workout -- that's okay. :)

40 minutes upright bike (medium to hard effort)

1 mile swim (38:30)

60 minutes elliptical

PM

stretching

lateral and medial hip rotators strength training w/ Sophia and Livvy (they would laugh each time I would say gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, or gluteus medias -- so so so funny).

30 minutes upright bike (medium)

1/2 mile swim (18:40)

90 minutes elliptical  (easy)

morning

45 minutes upright bike (15.63 miles) -- one song really hard, one song medium, one song  really hard, etc.

45 minutes of Matt kicking the trash out of me! When he was stripping my anterior compartment muscles I thought I was going to literally faint. The psoas muscles were tighter than sin as well. DANG!!! I was planning on swimming right after but he told me I needed to go home and ice. So, I'm icing! :)

afternoon

60 minutes elliptical

Bought new running shoes (isn't that the cure all?) and ate a bunch of stuff that I shouldn't have -- but I was starving and thought I was making a smart selection but everything came drenched in better -- DANG! The asphalt pie was worth it though.

I have never ran in Asics before. I'll test these babies out tomorrow. Oh yeah ... I bought some Superfeet insoles as well. They were more pricey than I expected, hopefully they will be worth it.

Early morning with the Chumps.

I was so excited to test out my new shoes (and insoles). Overall, the run was a success, albeit 2 weeks of very little running does take its toll. No pain to speak of, just very heavy and tired legs (crazy since I have not been running, you would think they would be springy and full of life). Kept all my miles around 9 minutes and yet by 12 miles I was very tired. Blah.

Ran 10.5 miles with Brooke and Matt. At that point they turned to go home. I was going to continue to run by myself when Paul showed up. I guess the Chumps think I need a babysitter in order to make sure I don't do anything stupid and re-injure myself. Little did Paul know I was already feeling fatigued and was not going to try and speed up. Paul ran with me a couple of miles until we ran into Vuyk and Mark who were heading back. Vuyk and I decided to take it easy (it wasn't a real decision for me, more of a necessity) while Paul and Mark took off faster than fast!

Really missing how good I felt those few months before Boston. Please oh please oh please let that come back.

* Spent the remainder of the morning and afternoon helping Ry's parents with their garage sale -- yikes, that was a mess. (Although I did get my hands on some of Ry's old high school baseball sweats that he cut off and wore around the house. LOVE THEM!!! Can't wait to lounge around in them myself! :)

* * Now 24 hours later I am stiff but no real pain. :)

20 minutes lower body strength training

2 mile swim

** Really faded the last 1/2 mile but felt like I was in no real danger of drowning so kept going! Yes, Mike, I thought about your Ironman/Irongirl challenge. I think, for now, I will leave that hardest of hardcore stuff to you, my friend! But ... maybe, just maybe, by the time I hit 40! :)

10 miles

* Very stiff and tight the first two miles but then felt pretty decent.

* Can't decide if I like the Superfeet insoles. Ran 5 miles with them, 5 miles without.

lower body strength training

30 minutes upright bike

1 mile swim

9 miles

hip and ankle strength training

5 minutes warmup on the elliptical to loosen my legs

20.2 miles (mostly with the Chumps - was so glad to get a call from Kathie at 4:50 this morning saying she was on her way, some on my own)

** Ry  had to come and find me to give me more fluids. What a guy! :) It was also fun to finally meet Brent and Sylvie (and their doggy). Was able to run the last mile on grass barefoot (since Ry said he would come and get me from there). LOVED THAT LAST MILE.

Overall, I feel really good about this run. It was not nearly as fast as I would like it to be (eventually) and I did take a couple of breaks, but I got in the miles with only fatigue, no pain. :)

**15 minute icebath ... dang I hate those!!! :)

***********

**Good sign: Just a few hours later and I was able to DDR it up with my oldest and her friend! :) SWEET! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention earlier that I wore the least amount of prewrap and kinesio tapes in about a year. Cool!

My first (albeit homemade) sprint triathlon! :)

I was riding the upright bike this morning reading a book when I thought to myself: "Hey ... why don't you shake it up a bit and do a sprint. I quickly reviewed the distances in my mind to see if I had time (I had only scheduled 90 minutes in for a workout) and it seemed that I might just be able to pull it off.

I didn't want to push too hard, but I wanted to put in a decent effort. I know that it is customary to start in the pool but I didn't decide this until I was 20 minutes into my bike ride. :)

Teena's Debut Gold's Gym Sprint :)

20K Bike / 41:34

750 m Swim / 18:08

5K Run / 25:45 (** Dang, it is still very painful to run without NSAIDS -- I hadn't originally planned on any running so didn't take any ibuprofen. I struggled to keep this slower than marathon pace. Oh well -- so it goes.)

TT: 85:27 (this does not include transition times - which I didn't keep track of)

Overall Place: 1st!!!!! :) :) :)

PM

Yoga

AM

Yoga

10 miles (9 progressive, 1 cooldown)

PM

60 minutes elliptical

Never made it to the pool. Stink!

15 minutes lower body strength training: wobble board and resistance bands

60 minutes upright bike while watching SYTYCD

(My stinkin' screen on my upright bike went out ... dang!)

20 minutes stretching

11.5 easy paced miles at various inclines from 0% - 6%

** I put my superfeet insoles in a pair of my Adidas shoes. Hmmmm ... I think this is the best combination. Unfortunately, they don't make the Adidas Boston Classics anymore. Wasatch stills has a few pairs, perhaps I need to go get them while I can. Stinkin' money.

60 minutes upright bike

Midnight Moonlight Madly Right Marathon

(Bodyguards and all!)

SSF and I getting ready to hit it!

The Bodyguards!!!

(Nic, Fonz, and Johnny)

The Midnight Crew

This is HANDS DOWN the funnest marathon I have ever run! What more could I ask for? Running with my SSF on a beautiful night bodyguarded by two of my brothers and Fonz. IT WAS FABULOUS.

The boys took shifts protecting the women-folk! THANKS BOYS! However, I must admit that my brother, Johnny, will not be getting an invite for such a position next year. HE WAS THE WORST BODYGUARD EVER!! Not only did he run ahead but he got stinkin' LOST!!! What a nutjob! :) Luckily Nic was there to alleviate any fears we might have had otherwise. Second shift was Fonz! Seriously, so cool of him to be willing to run with us old ladies. I don't know if he has ever run that slow of a pace before (in fact, I don't think I have ever seen him run anything slower than a 6 minute mile), but he was GREAT, even pushing me hard a few different times. I wanted to kill him, but man it felt good! (Thanks for letting us bombard your house!)

I will NEVER forget this run. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people in my life. Any of you who know Smooth know just how lucky I am. She had me laughing so hard. The first 20 miles went by like nothing. And for those of you who read her blog about our run I need to clarify something right now: I wanted to run 20 or 22 miles ... it was Smooth who wanted to run 24 ... it was ONLY then that I said, "Blah ... if we are going to run 24 we might as well run 26.2." She is trying to blame me ... but it is was HER!!!! :) :) :)

** SSF, Johnny, Nic and Fonz: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! This will be one of those runs that will put a smile on my face each time I think about it!

************

AND as if the day could not get any better ... I tagged along with Smooth and Larry to watch the D-News marathoners run it in! THAT WAS AWESOME!!! Congrats to all of you on your fine races today, it was so much fun watching so many bloggers do so well. Smooth's brother-in-law, Gary, is NOT HUMAN!!! He looked so relaxed and aerodynamic as he ran through the finish line at a 3:07 and Allie -- YOU AMAZE ME!!!! :) :) :)

80 minutes upright bike (very easy pace)

800 meter swim (medium to hard effort)

2 recovery miles

* Already miss the moonlight!

a.m.

After watching some Bolt clips I really wanted to try and hit some speed. No worries, I played it smart, warmed up well, and then just sprinkled speed throughout. 1 marathon pace mile, 1 threshold mile, 3 800s at VO2 max, and 2 400s as well. FELT SO GOOD TO HIT ANOTHER GEAR.

p.m.

Around the World Core (reps of 17)

Yoga

2 mile swim.

* About 1 mile into my swim I had to share a lane with this guy trying to do the backstroke. He was ALL over the place. I figured all of his hitting my head and kicking my body was good practice for an open water tri. Sure did start to bug me though. Dang.

** With about 1/3 of a mile to go I started feeling really fatigued, my swimming was not nearly as smooth, I had slowed down considerably and was starting to swallow water. I stopped, put on some nice slow music (Allred -- good stuff) took a few deep breaths and started again. Crazy how a 2 minute break and change of music could bring me right back to where I wanted to be. I don't think I will ever swim for speed (at least that is what I am saying right now). I enjoy the weightlessness and peace of swimming relaxed and smoothly too much. It's a nice break. So good for my body, spirit, and mind.

13 miles

*6 good effort miles in the middle: 3 at marathon pace, 1 at threshold pace, and 2 at an easy pace but 4% incline.

60 minutes upright bike

20 minutes core

18 miles with the Chumps.

We got off to a little bit late of a start (started running at 5:25 instead of 5). Not sure if the late start had to do with anything but by 8:00 I was exhausted. Had planned on coming home and running an additional 2 uphill miles on the treadmill, but one look at that machine and I changed my mind. Dang! So gutterball!

Icebath. :)

Presently fighting the urge to get back in bed.

** Zero pain, only fatigue and minor tightness. :) :) :)