What ever it takes!

5:30 am.  All I can say is I'm really glad I'm not running St. George this weekend.  I'm a complete wreck.  My leg still hurts, I pulled a muscle in my neck and I'm coming down with a pretty nasty cold.  This morning I was pretty sure I wouldn't even come to work, but at 5:00 am I woke up and decided to go to the gym and worst case just sit in the hotub and steam room.  By the time I got there I felt OK and started on the elliptical for 15 minutes, then was feeling better and decided to try running, so I did 3 miles on the treadmill at 7:30 pace.  Stretched out a little bit and went to the Hot Tub.  Actually quite happy I got out of bed and did some excercise, I'm sure I feel a lot better now than if I would have stayed home.

Taking double shots of emergen -C.  Last week I felt bad for myself cause I felt good but couldn't run because of my leg, today I just feel like crap.  Maybe my body is telling me something.

5:15 am.  Feeling a little better today, woke up a bit stuffy but not bad, I knew once I started moving it would get better.  Decided to just hit the lap pool today, did 1600m in 45 minutes.  Kind of slow but I worked on different breathing techniques and strokes.  Hopefully I will get a run in tomorrow, would love to be able to get a longish run in this weekend while the weather is perfect.

Finally, I'm human again. 

4:45 am.  Still a little bit congested and my leg started out stiff so I did 10 minutes on the elliptical to loosen up, then I went to the treadmill, started out at 7:30 pace to make sure everything still worked properly, then started kind of a progressive ladder.  It felt great to get my heart rate up again.

6 Miles in 40 minutes 6:40/mile average.  Ran my last mile in 6:10.  

Last night I had Britt totally strip my leg muscles, hurt so bad I started crying but I could tell it was helping, after today's run my leg feels almost normal for the first time in close to 4 weeks.  Really excited to be running again.

Ryan is running the Dublin Marathon in 4 weeks (lame, I wish I could go to Dublin) so he is already back to marathon training.  I told him I would try and tag along on his 20 miler this Saturday, we'll see how that goes.

So, due to all the recent single women runner attacks lately Britt wanted me to run on her long run with her, so I told my boss I'd be in to work late today stayed home and helped get the kids ready for school.  (I've never done that)  After we got all the kids to school I took Britt out on my 10 mile trail run, except we started at the bottom of the hill cause she was afraid she wouldn't make it home.  Went out on the Bull River Trail around Smiths and back,  It was only 7 miles when we got back to the car and she really wanted to get 8 in so I drove the car home and she ran up the hill through our neighborhood home.  

This is the furthest she has ever ran, and because of me pacing, the fastest she had ever averaged for any distance.  She did 8.05 miles in 1:14:00. 

This is good for me to help her get ready for a race for a couple of reasons, 1 it's probably good for me to run slower and get recovered, and 2 she feels like running isn't all about me for once.  I think she can totally do a 1/2 in under 2 hours, she just needs a 9:09 avg pace.

5:30 am, set out to do 8 easy miles today, after 4 my leg felt like it was going to explode and I had to stop, went to the Elliptical for 5 minutes and got bored with that so I went and hit the weight room and did some resistance stretches on my leg and some core workout.  I'm really sick of being a gimp,  I feel like I'm going to start loosing fitness if I can't start running normal again.

Oh, I played flag football last night with Elders Quarum.  I'm really bad at football, but it felt good knowing I could outrun everyone on the field.  We have an ex-superbowl NFL player in our ward and I could run circles around him.  :)

 Oh! one more thing, Good luck to all you St. Georgers.  Wish I could be there.

6:00 am.  Based on how the last 2 weeks have gone I woke up this morning thinking I was making one of the worst decisions of my life, but I told Ryan I would go on his long run with him and I try not to ever no show when I commit to something. 

We met at the Maverik and ran our normal 18 mile loop out to Utah Lake back along the River Trail though Willow Park around Thanksgiving point and back to the Maverik.  We had a few contingency plans to shorten the run in case my leg started acting up but I actually felt really good the whole time.  Not to say I didn't get tired towards the end but my leg held up and actually feels better now than it has in weeks.  When we got back to the car Ryan needed to get an extra 2 miles in for a 20, I didn't want to push my luck and quit.  Plus I told my wife I'd hurry home.

Feel very happy that I got out and made myself get a long run in, almost doubled my weekly mileage on one run :).  Pace wasn't horrible either.

18.15 miles in 2:10:00  around 7:10/mile avg pace.