Will Run For Ice Cream

Not good.. no other way to put it than not good. I went to the Sports Med doctor today to find out that the pain I started feeling last week is a nerve in my hip that is severely inflamed. I already have partial paralysis in the surrounding muscle tissue. I go Thursday to start PT with some type of cortisone treatment. Also, I have severe muscle imbalance in my lower legs. I never noticed this before. But now I can see that my feet turn in and my legs are sort of bowed where they weren't before. Right now I can't run, bike or use the elliptical. Basically, in a nutshell ... no cardio. I suppose I'll find out more on Thursday when I go to PT. For those of you who aren't runners, maybe you can't identify with the anguish and devastation that I feel at the moment. Being a runner helped define who I am. It is as if a part of myself has been ripped away.

I was barely a half mile into the run and I was wanting to quit. My legs hurt, my lungs hurt and honestly I just wanted to be in bed. Actually, I waited a little later to run this weekend, and the sun was already beating down on me. I was wishing I had forced myself to get an earlier start. After running down the mile long hill, feeling fatigued already, possibly more mentally fatigued than physical, I tried not to think about the 10 more miles ahead of me. After running to the end of town, three miles into the run, I allowed myself to have a water break. At this point, I was three miles from home, and still trying to talk myself into finishing what I had started. It's amazing how I can debate with myself while running. "But if I go back now, it's only 3 more miles. Yes, but 5 miles short of your goal. And 5 more short of ice cream. Ice cream? That's right. Any run over 10 miles and I can have ice cream. Nice cold, creamy chocolate ice cream". I kept running. At m...

I’m sore, and I’m getting more sore as the day goes on. But it’s a good feeling. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it - the 11 mile run yesterday, I’ve been having stomach issues when running the longer distances. I tried the stomach aid last weekend on my 9 mile run. It helped but didn’t solve the problem. But yesterday, I used the stomach aid and I carried water with me. I’ve been running the long runs without drinking any water. I know I know. So yesterday, I carried water with me. Usually once I take one sip, I’m in trouble. But yesterday I drank probably 8 ounces during a 2 hour run. It was a good ‘start’. I don’t want to use the stomach medicine every time I run a long distance, but I need to use it on my longer runs to decide how much to take and when before I run the half marathon. I believe I’m doing to treat myself to a sports pedi for making the distance yesterday. It was tough, but I did it.

My half-marathon is only 8 weeks away. I'm nervous, but hopefully the rest of my training will go ok. And I'll do fine. Time will tell. I'm trying hard to lose the weight that I've put on over the last 2 years. So far I've lost two pounds and have four more to go. Hopefully I'll keep the two pounds off. I seem to keep gaining and losing the same weight over and over. I'm bumping up my cardio. I rejoined the gym this week. Yesterday I went to the 5:45am spin class. So now I can cross train on my days off from running. I'm trying not to think about the half being so close. I feel like I have such a LONG way to go to be ready. But I'm registered now.. so I have to go through with it. Deep down I want to. It's a fear that I might not finish, but a thrill to push myself and see what I can do.

I hope to get an 8 mile run in tomorrow. My last attempt at a long run didn't turn out the way I expected - stomach issues and I'll leave it at that. I've made a few modifications to my diet today. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be incident free. I'm also going to try running without my water bottle belt. That has been one major change for my last two runs that have turned out to be somewhat disastrous. So I'm going to leave it behind and see if it makes a difference. I sure hope so. It's not fun to go out for a run scared that I will be plagued by stomach issues. I started swimming as cross training this week. I'm not really sure you can call it swimming as I basically 'dog paddle', but at least I am moving. I wanted to add some additional cardio to my work out routine. But I have my route mapped out for tomorrow... hopefully it will be a good run.

It was GREAT to run with my best friend again. The three days that I spent with her, we ran 6 miles one day, hiked 8 miles another day, then ran another 5 miles my last day there. It was wonderful. I know myself well enough to know that if I didn't get back into running as soon as I got home, that it would be difficult for me to start back again. That being said, I ran yesterday after work. And I just finished a 2 mile (slow run) in the rain. I'm starting my half marathon training, and this week I am to run a total of 16 miles. I plan to run my long run on Friday. I can see improvement in myself... and I'm happy about that!

I'm surprised that I am so sore. I expected my calves to be sore. Instead it is my quads. It's a good kindof sore though. It lets me know that I worked hard.