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bike: 30 minutes, kilimanjaro, L15

swim: 800 meters

10 miles total

- 2 miles by my lonesome, AP 9:30

- 3 miles with Sophers, Kilia and Ben, 8:30ish

- 5 more miles by my lonesome, AP 8:56

Happy Labor Day, All. :)

morning:

6 miles: 1 easy, 2 MP, 2 Threshold, 1 easy

13 miles, AP 8:42

- 3 with Ry and Sophers

- 2 more with Ry

- 8 by my lonesome

Today is a GREAT day!!! Presented my doctoral project. Very pleased with the outcome. It was accepted without any changes needed. I feel relieved and a great sense of accomplishment. I don't mean to say that in any sort of bragging way. It has just been a lot of work. :)

So happy!!

5 miles with Ry on the JRP, AP 8:24

7 miles by my lonesome, AP 8:33

This week has been draining. Trying to catch up at school is no fun. Oh well. :)

14 miles with Ry on the JRP (Josh joined us for a handful of those), AP 8:13.

Fun to run into Kathie and Kimmie for the third time this season!! Those girls and so amazingly amazing. Love them. :)

Missing running with my Sophers SO SO SO much!! She has cross country on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she doesn't run with me on those days now. Plus, she left for Enterprise with my parents yesterday and won't be home until tomorrow night.

Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. I hope my body will do it!!! :)

60 boring minutes on the elliptical

60 boring minutes on the elliptical

60 boring minutes on the elliptical

Another 60 boring minutes on the elliptical.

Finally, 6 running miles.

Calf pain is still there. It doesn't seem better, it doesn't seem worse. What in the world??? Anyway, I really really really wanted to pace Sophia at the Spanish Fork 5K (which was the following day) so I had to make sure that I could run. :)

SUCH A GREAT DAY!!!!

Sophia wanted to run the Spanish Fork 5K today to defend her age division title. Little did she know that she would take the WHOLE DANG ENCHILADA!!!!!!! :)

Sophia has not been doing much speed work and so we weren't sure what to expect. We had run a 3 miler a couple of weeks ago at a 7:30 pace which seemed plenty hard but we were confident that she would run faster than that.

The Spanish Fork 5K and half marathon is always so well organized with such a fantastic small town feel and great overall race atmosphere. I know that Kim Lee does a ton to make this race what it is. Not sure if she will read this report, but if so: NICELY DONE once again, Kim!!!

Ry, Sophia and I arrived with a few minutes to spare and so ran a slow gentle half of a mile. My calf hurt, but it was definitely runnable. We then proceeded to the starting line. I immediately spotted the guy who I knew would win. I have no idea who he is but you can just tell. I looked around to spot the woman runner whom I believed would win. MAN ALIVE ... I thought, I think Sophia can take it!!!! I told her that we needed to start at the front and that there was $50 prize money if she could win this thing. Her eyes lit up but you could tell that her nerves did as well.

Gun went off. We took off and ran the first mile (which has a gentle uphill) in just under 7 minutes. Sophia looked fantastic. Her breathing was fast but under control. The second mile got quite a bit harder. More uphill, but steeper. At this point Sophia began to continually turn her head to see what women were behind her. The only woman we could spot was about 30 seconds back. I told Smo to stop looking back but she continued to do so every quarter of a mile or so. I am sure this slowed her down a bit because she knew she could out kick me in the end and each time she turned to look back she could tell that the gap on the other woman was becoming larger. We kept running. When we had roughly 800 meters left in the race Sophia and I were pretty much side by side. Needless to say, when I told her the remaining distance she took off!!!! Ry was just a bit ahead. I tried to keep up but there was no way. Not sure if it was taking the 5 days off of running, the pain in the calf, or simply because I am getting older!! :)

Sophia ended up beating me by 11 seconds! It was AWESOME seeing her just fly down the final stretch. The crowd was cheering her in!! An 11 year old was the first woman!!! GLORIOUS!!! Her time was 22:05 (see http://sophia.fastrunningblog.com/ ). Sophia was now $50 richer!!! :) :) :) I ended up in 2nd, which I was more than happy with!! :)

Anyway, as usual, the calf was no better but no worse. Was very frustrated that the 5 days off did not seem to help at all. So mad that I said, "To HECK with it" and ran an additional 20 miles afterward with Ry, AP 8:23. Ryan is peaking perfectly as this pace felt very easy for him. I am going to have to swallow a whole lot of pride at SGM this year as it is very likely that he will beat me. That is if I make it to the starting line at all. :)

GREAT DAY!

60 boring elliptical minutes

6 miles, AP 8:18.

(3 miles easy, 3 miles harder)

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SMO TOOK FIRST IN HER CROSS COUNTRY MEET TODAY (3K)! NO OFFICIAL RESULTS YET ON HER TIME. THE NEXT GIRL WAS OVER A MINUTE BEHIND! SHE KILLED IT!!! :) :) :)

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THINKING OUT LOUD FOR TO HAVE THIS ON RECORD:

This whole calf thing is frustrating me to no end. The pain is so variable. One day it hurts horribly right in the medial belly of the gastroc, then another day it will feel more soleus in nature, then the next thing you know it feels like it is posterior tibialis and then the another day it will feel like tibial periostitis or maybe even the beginning of a stress reaction leading to stress fracture. Most days it is a combination of a couple of these things.

AGGRAVATING AND ALLEVIATING FACTORS

AGGRAVATING:

- The morning after a hard run.

- After sitting for a long time.

- Too much stretching and/or soft tissue mobilization

- Ice -- this is a weird one, it sometimes alleviates sometimes aggravates

- Walking downstairs more that upstairs

ALLEVIATES:

- When the muscles/tissue/fascia are warm (i.e., more pain in the beginning of a run versus the middle and the end) -- but the pain never completely goes away, just gets less intense

- Ibuprofen (alleviates, never completely goes away)

- Prednisone (I had an allergic reaction to the Tide pods while we were in California. I broke out in a rash that covered my body. Was put on 3 days of prednisone. My calf pain was significantly less while I was on it.)

- Ice -- (sometimes alleviates, sometimes aggravates)

- Sleeping in a strassburg sock but only places at neutral DF/PF ... more than that is problematic

- Iontophoresis with dexamethasone (not sure if this alleviated anything or not to be honest, but tried it)

THOUGHTS:

It seems like pain is the worse when the calf musculature is involved in an eccentric contraction. Also, it seems that if I mess with it too much via soft tissue mobilization or too much stretching that it worsens things. I can't help but wonder if I have damaged some peripheral nerves. The fact that ibuprofen and prednisone help suggests that inflammation is a problem. The problem is that ibuprofen has been aggravating my asthma and stomach and so I haven't been taking it. Whether it was the allergic reaction in Cali, lack of sleep, increased stress or something else, my body has been extremely sensitive to things that it does not like. Blah blah blah -- I'm probably just getting old. :)

I know an MRI would help be figure out exactly what is wrong but I don't want to put the money into it. I am confident that if I were willing to take off more than 5 days at a time that my body would heal. The problem is that SGM is just around the corner and I want to run it. Ugggh ...

Not illiciting advise to or not to run. Just wanted to put signs and symptoms in black and white for my future reference.

What caused all this? I think it was the all the sprints I was running with Sherm during the summer and then not taking a week off when the symptoms first appeared. I have been running on the red line. Something us runners tend to do. If Ry were not running SGM it would have been much easier for me to take sufficient time off. My always wanting to show off for that boy may be the death of me yet. :) :) :)

The good thing is though I am frustrated, I am not sad. Working with individuals with spinal cord injuries, strokes, traumatic brain injuries and amputations has completely transformed who I am and how I think. I am grateful for that. :)

8 miles (1 easy, 6 MP, 1 easy).

Began taking high doses of B12 today.

Nothing!!

Had a HUGE neuro test today. Have been extremely short on sleep and just didn't have it in me.

The neuro test went well though. :)

12 miles with Ry in the late afternoon on the JRP, AP 8:28.

It was so stinkin' hot (80 ̊). That is the problem about having class start at 7:00 a.m. It is so hard to run anything more than an hour or so in the morning and still have time to shower, get ready and drive there. Whine whine whine, I such a cry baby! :)

This run was hard for me. I felt dizzy and weak throughout.

Going to take tomorrow off and then try and pace Sophia for the first 2 miles of the XTERRA 5K on Sunday. That is if my calf will behave. :)

XTERRA 5K :)

Plan: Plain and simple - pace Sophers for roughly 2 miles and then encourage her to leave.

Execution: NO BUENO!!! Could barely stay with Sophers for a little more than a mile. My body was seriously angry at me. My calf was killing, I couldn't breath and I felt plain awful. It didn't help that the race was 1/2 mile long when you feel so crappy. I wasn't even running that fast but I felt like I was going to stinkin' drop over!

Result: Sophia did AMAZING!!! She came in a little under a minute before me taking 2nd place overall woman, and 1st in her division. She was also 11th overall combined men and women. She got some fun prizes, which was super fun. That girl is on fire!!! :)

FUNNY STORY:

So during the award ceremony for age divisions they decided to start with the oldest and end with the youngest. I was patiently awaiting to be called in the 35-39 division because they started oldest to youngest. However, when they did the 40-44 year olds they called my name as placing first! WHAT!!! I am not 40!!! I politely told them this when they said, "Hey Sweetie, it says here that you turn 40 this year. That's how we do it here." WOW!!! Was not expecting that!!!!! I felt kind of numb and still haven't decided what to do with the feelings that came a little later. :)

********

No way I want to run a marathon feeling like I felt during this race. Sigh. What to do? (Not a real question, just thinking out loud.) :)

60 minutes elliptical - not feeling well at all (both calf-wise and whole body-wise). What is going on.

45 minutes doing aquatic rehab during a neuro lab (I happened to be the one pretending to be the patient and got put through the ringer). Feeling lousy.

60 minutes elliptical including 8 x 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy

* Shouldn't have done the on:offs. I feel like poo! Thought the harder effort would boost my immune system some. Not so much! Felt like I had been hit by a dump trunk all day.

Calf doesn't hurt at all on the elliptical. But does hurt when walking/stairs/etc. My stomach won't let me take any ibuprofen or any other meds. What is going on with me?

50 minutes elliptical, easy.

I feel about the same.

30 minutes elliptical

30 minutes bike

* If I don't start feeling better today I am taking tomorrow off.

8 miles, AP 8:24, just to see if I could do it. Decided that if there was too much pain that I was going to call SGM off. It was kind of mediocre so I still am unsure as to what to do.

Couldn't sleep last night. Woke up about every 90 minutes in horrible pain: mostly head, left eye, nose, left jaw and left sided teeth pain. Felt like my head was going to blow up. Almost went to the ER (but that is because I can be overly dramatic sometimes). Decided to go to the InstaCare and wait in the parking lot for it to open so that I could be the first one there: which I was.

Had a slight fever and my blood pressure was much higher than usual. Pretty bad sinus infection that seems to have irritated the trigeminal nerve (hence all of the horrible face pain). Am presently on an antibiotic and pain meds. Just knowing what is going on made me feel somewhat better even though I still hurt and my stomach doesn't like the medicine. The doctor I saw is running SGM and has run over 70 marathons. He was very nice and told me that it wouldn't hurt to try and run today because my lungs sounded good (that's shocking ... that's usually the first thing I have problems with). He said once the congestion reduces a little that hopefully the nerve will settle down. I hope that is VERY VERY VERY soon. It has been a rougher week for me.

BUT ... I feel like things are going to really turn around now! One bad week every now and then really isn't too bad at all. :)

Stinky day.

I have not slept more than a handful of hours in three days. The antiobiotics have not seemed to help. I am experiencing the same thing that I experienced three years ago before the Park City Marathon. Same tooth and all. What started as a sinus infection has turned into a dental nightmare. Just got back from the endodontist who said that the tooth has already had two root canals and that the only thing that is left to do is to yank the dang thing out. I'm not happy but am in so much pain that I will do whatever. Headed to the oral surgeon at 3:00 today for my makeover. It's not going to be pretty. Luckily it is in the back.

This is the first day I have missed of PT school due to illness. I really hope I can go tomorrow.

Have no idea whether or not I will be running SGM.

BUT ... my face has hurt so badly that I haven't even noticed my calf!!! :) :) :)

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Evening:

I still have my miserable tooth. The ortho surgeon was concerned that I was not able to get numb due to the infection and so I need to be sedated. Couldn't do it then because I had juice 2 hours prior to the appointment. He switched my antibiotics, put me on Percocet and scheduled me for Friday. He said that SGM is not an option.