Kind of a boring week

There's a bug going around work that, unfortunately, I have caught. Nothing that serious - just a cold - but a cold that lingers. Apparently it's going to stick with me for 2-3 weeks. Yuck. I've definitely been feeling it on my runs, so I've been taking it easy (per coaches orders) this week. I still have my long run planned tomorrow of 10-12 miles, so we'll see how that goes. I just hope this cold works its way through & fast!

I'm Official!

I thought I would celebrate my return to blogging by sharing something very exciting - my official 2010 Boston Marathon Entry confirmation! This, and the two 16 mile runs I had to the past two weekends (including my first jaunt up the dreaded "Heartbreak Hill"), are making this all very real.

A week of ups and downs

So after the last post about the massage, by knee felt great for about 1 - 1 1/2 days. Then it started bugging me again, worse than before! I actually think it might have been self inflicted from improper stretching & foam rolling, but I'm not positive.

During that time, on Friday and Saturday I was supposed to go swimming. I had a great swim on Friday and then on Saturday, really didn't want to go but was proud that I managed to drag myself to the pool after a long day of work after all. However, just as I was about to get in, I learned that a child had puked in the pool! Yuck! Needless to say, the pool was closed and I had to forgo the swimming.

So onto today. My coach created a revised training plan for me this week after the knee pain. So, I thought it said 6 mi. easy, stretch, then 2-4 more miles, only realizing after I had completed my run that it was 6 min. not 6 mi., so I ended up running 9 miles today instead of 2- 4 miles. Whoops! The strange thing, however, was after about 1/4 mile of my run, the pain pretty much went away. It came back again slightly towards the end but even now a few hours after the run, I feel better. Not sure what to make of all this.

This past week has definitely been frustrating since I felt like my progress was going along well until this past week. This week was the first time I had moments of wondering if I could do this, but I'm sure I'll get my confidence back once I start feeling 100% on runs again.

Absolutely amazing...

Yesterday was a rough day - my knee was hurting. All throughout work it hurt, even just walking. I was getting very concerned that something more major was going on. However, I went to my sports massage (as planned) and once I got up off the table, my knee pain was literally gone. I still am in disbelief. That knee is about 90% better which is certainly an improvement over the stiff hobbling around I did all day yesterday. Now I just have to figure out a way to rig the lottery so I can go get a sports massage every week :-).

An exciting day today.

For the record, I am not a fan of very early morning runs, like the 5:30 a.m. run I did today - I'm fine with pretty much anything after 7:00 a.m. - but 5:30 a.m., yuck. I envy those other runners who seem to be able to so easily get out on the road before dawn.

That said, it was for a good cause because I am getting a massage tonight!!! I am still feeling the residual effects of this weekend's 15 mile run and my hip has been so tight and I just can't seem to loosen it with any amount of stretching. Tight hips are a big factor in the knee pain I've been having on and off, so my coach recommended a sports massage. Wasn't going to say no to that. So while 5:30 a.m. today wasn't that great, at 5:30 p.m. should be much better! I'm certainly not in a position to be getting a massage regularly, but I figure I can treat myself every now and again.

This week's long run was awful...

This week's long run, which was yesterday, was 15 miles. To give those of you who might be reading a idea of just how long that is, in 15 miles you can get from:

• Bristol, CT to Meriden, CT
• Walnut Creek, CA to Berkley, CA
• Menasha, WI to Oshkosh, WI
• Somerville, MA to Braintree, MA

Bill, my husband, has been doing all my long runs with me since he is signed up for the Martha's Vineyard 20 miler in two weeks. We both felt great after last week's 12 mile run, and were really looking forward to this week's run. However, we were both sorely disappointed. I think a big problem was that it was really cold yesterday - colder than it's been for most of our runs. We both ended up being slightly underdressed and never really warmed up. My hip kept cramping up the second 1/2 of the run and I had to stop and stretch it out every 1-2 miles. This week's work-outs were harder than normal, and my legs felt like bricks. Needless to say, we were both glad when it was over.