I am feeling pretty ecstatic today.  I have not been able to run in a month, and I made an appointment with the sports medicine doctor but they couldn’t fit me in until August 31…

My calf wasn’t really bugging me the last few days so yesterday I tried out a short run.  I went on the treadmill, did 2 miles, on 5.0.  It felt great, and I stretched a lot before and after.  It felt fine all day and when I woke up this morning it still feels pretty good.  So…I think it may have healed. I am going to try to run tomorrow again, same run as yesterday, and then again on Monday.  If all goes well I will start increasing my distance and speed slowly to see if I can get back to normal. 

I will keep my appointment with the doctor, just in case I activate the injury again, and also to get them to give me the once over and make sure I am not damaging anything.  Also maybe they can tell me what I actually did to myself as I never did figure it out.  In the meantime it felt so good to be able to run again.  I am really hoping this is behind me!

I ran my half-marathon last weekend and my goal time was 2 hours and 20 minutes and miraculously I came in at 2:20:50.  Woohoo!  Mad applause all around.  I felt pretty good going into the race, and was happy to have a sunny day.  I tried to keep to my pace right from the start, and did pretty well.  It ended up being quite a bit hotter than I had expected, but thankfully I was in shorts and a t-shirt so I didn’t roast.  I had also slathered myself in sunscreen with great foresight .  Last year I didn’t remember and came home quite pink.  My first 10 km were great and I was excited about staying on my goal time.  The thing I noticed about this year’s race was it was a lot more crowded.  I guess that was because I was running a bit faster so I was more in the middle of the pack.  That had advantages in that there was a lot to look at and lots of people to motivate me to keep going.  At the same time it meant a lot of weaving in and out of other runners and at some points having to slow down as I just couldn’t get past right away.    I was feeling pretty good until the last 2 kilometres when I just started to feel drained.  It was really hot, I don’t think I ate enough sport beans and I was just feeling beat up.  I knew I had to keep going, so I did, but at the same time I didn’t have that final burst of speed I like to give at the end.  So I made my goal time (just!) and shaved 12 minutes off my last half marathon  time, which was wonderful, but next time I want to do even better and come in at 2:15 – I know I can do it!

So the big race is this Sunday.  I am doing my last training run this morning and am debating what to do.  I was going to run 18km this past weekend but was advised to cut it back to 12km instead.  Not being one to argue about running more EVER, I was happy to oblige.  Tuesday I ran 3.2km and today I am debating between 4 and 5km.  Then just resting up for the big race.  I am feeling really good about it, excited, ready.  I pick up my race kit tomorrow.  I am starting to get the pre-race butterflies, but being that it is my second half marathon at the very least I know I can complete it.  And that is really my goal.  Completing it in 2:20 would be even more exciting, but as long as I beat last year’s time of 2:32 I will be thrilled.  Wish me luck!

I can’t believe it!  I ran my 10km race yesterday and made it over the finish line in 59:35.  I had an amazing running partner who basically got me through it.  By kilometre 1 I was already sore and winded.  He just somehow made me keep moving.  I just kept telling myself I could do one more at this pace, and I seemed to be able to.  We even ran the second 5 km about 30 seconds faster than the first 5.  At one point we were running past a few people who had finished their race and one of them yelled to my running partner that he had better stay with me.  It was at that point that I realized how horrible I must look .  Fortunately I was too tired to even laugh at that point.  With 1/2 a kilometre left I saw that I was at 58:15 and I looked at my partner and said there is no way I am NOT doing this…and I found some inner strength and powered through…I still cannot believe I did it.  I am so proud of  myself!  And not too sore today either.  Yea!!

I am gearing up for my big race tomorrow.  I am running a 10km race and I have set myself a time goal of 1 hour.  My last 10km race took me 1:07 which was the fastest I had ever run that distance and I was thrilled.  I don’t actually think I can hit 1 hour but hopefully I will do it or at least get close.  I have had a rough week so it is nice to have something positive to focus on.  I will report back and let you know how it went…happy running everyone!

I woke up bright and early yesterday morning to go for my 13km run.  It was sunny outside so I was very excited about getting out there and enjoying the day.  I wore a light hat and a couple of layers as I knew it would still be a bit chilly out there.  It was actually a beautiful morning, sunny, and probably close to zero degrees celcius.  Oh yeah, and then there were 39km/h wind gusts.  Freaking 39 km/h!!  The wind was actually blowing me backwards.  At one point it was blowing directly up my nose so I was having trouble breathing.  I struggled so hard to finish that run.

Several times I just stopped looked at the sky, shook my fist and yelled, “Seriously????”  As I round the corner on my last kilometre, I thought, okay I survived.  And then the wind gust came again and that last kilometre threatened to reduce me to tears.

Why do I do this again?

Last week I hurt my foot after my long run – it seemed to be some kind of stress injury as it only started to hurt after the run.  I tried to run on it again on Monday and had to stop pretty quickly.  After that, I tried walking the dog every day to gauge how the foot felt.  Tuesday it hurt so much I had to come back after just 15 minutes.  Wednesday I was able to go 20 minutes.  Thursday I was able to do the whole walk with no pain.  I was about to jump back into my running schedule but my husband talked me into waiting a few days to make sure it was fully healed.  So today I picked up my routine and did a short 3.2km run…and my foot felt great!  No pain!  Woohoo!  So now I can continue with my half marathon training…

I tried to run last night to see if the pain in my foot would either go away, or hold off enough to let me get a run in.  I started out the run at a nice even pace and was fine for the first 7 minutes.  Then I started to feel a twinge, but was able to keep going.  After another 5 minutes I was in a lot of pain, but decided to try to keep going until I had been running for 15 minutes.  Unfortunately one more minute was all I could do as I started to worry that I was making it worse, and it just hurt so much.  So now I am going to take a few days off running and see if it repairs itself.  If not, I will have to see a doctor next week.  Sigh…my training was going so well!

I went for a great 7 mile (11.2 km) run on Saturday. It was sunny, I was happy, the run felt great. I pushed a bit for the last mile or so, trying to better my time. I felt like I had enough energy left as it was a nice easy run to give it a good sprint at the end. I was so happy with my time and how great I felt after the run was done. I came home, took a shower and my husband and I took the dog for an hour long walk. Well at the end of the walk the outside of my left foot started to seriously hurt. By the afternoon I was limping. When I am not putting any pressure on it, the foot feels fine, normal. As soon as I stand on it there is a bit of pain. But when I walk on it or put all my weight on the foot, it hurts quite a lot, to the point where I need to stop walking. It has improved a bit since Saturday, but is still not better. I am not sure if it is a better idea to try to run a short easy run today to try to stretch it out or if I should stay off it for a few more days until I feel better. I googled running foot injuries and couldn’t find any injuries that sounded like mine – so if anyone out there has any suggestions or info, please let me know.

I am training again for my half marathon at the end of May.  Some days running is just easy.  Some days it takes everything I have to walk two steps.  On Saturday I had to run 4 miles (6.4km).  This is a piece of cake run for me usually.  I don’t have to really think about food (before, during or after) or even bring a water bottle.  I basically just have to put my shoes on and go.

This Saturday it pretty much felt like I would be running a full marathon.  I COULD NOT get my head into this run.  I thought I would die before I completed it.  I procrastinated until mid-afternoon and then literally dragged myself downstairs to the treadmill.  I fired up an episode of Angel which usually is all the inspiration I need.  I then hauled myself up onto the treadmill and ran.  By ran, I mean I did the physical motion while my mind screamed at me and kept telling me to stop.  I felt like the run would NEVER EVER end.

When I finally finished the run, I felt like I had completed a half marathon and needed to go store up some energy and recover.  Seriously, I ran 6.5 km.  This was not normal behaviour.  I think sometimes my mental run is WAY harder than the physical run

I was happy to have done it though…tonight I have to run 3.2 km (2 miles)…wonder how it will go?