Holy SHI*

Yes, that four-letter word has been giving me grief lately. SHIN... Well  lets just make that plural, shall we? My shins have been aching and giving me grief for about two months now. That's about when my weekly mileage was upwards of 15/week. Then, I did 13.5 in two days as part of my Running binge and nothing has been the same since. My weekly mileage has been maybe 3, maybe. I did 2.4 the other day and actually felt great during the run and yesterday was feeling fine. Today, the pain is back. It's hard to sit by, legs twitching for a chance to pound and glide, moments of solitude and, yes, I'll say it, peace. The last two weeks while I've been resting I've actually been more tired, more grouchy, more anxious. My body wants to be free, my mind wants a chance to linger. Yet, these darn SHI*s are halting those longings, making them even more desirable.

I jealously stare at runners while I'm driving to do my errands.

I covet the mileage of my fellow Sole Sisters.

I feel pangs of  envy when I see photos of others enjoying runs, finishing races, smiling and sweaty.

I miss it! I feel crazy for even saying that, it's just running.... Oh, but it is so much more to me now! A trip to the ole Doctor just might be in store. I have avoided it long enough, I think.

How do you deal with running injuries? Give me some hope!

Past the slump

It had been quite a while since I ran more than 2 miles. 2.4 last month, and I walked a third of that too. 2.2 was the last distance I ran without any stopping, and that was 3 weeks ago. Yep. I was in a slump. An I-can't-go-any-farther-2-mile-slump. My goal since April has been to work my way to running 3 miles about 3 times a week. So why couldn't I get myself to go any farther? I needed help. So I turned to, you guessed it, my fellow Sole Sisters!

They had all sorts of great suggestions! More cross-training. Changing my route so I don't mentally quit when I hit familiar landmarks. Run with friends. Cheer myself on. Throw in some sprints for fun. Plus lots of encouragement that it's not just me, it's just hard to increase your mileage!

So tonight, I mapped a new 2.5 mile route (using mapmyrun.com!), met up with 2 Sole Sisters, and ran more than 2 miles! Grand total? 2.61 miles, at a slow but satisfying 12:47 minute/mile pace! We stopped briefly at the water fountain at our turn-around point, and the ladies helped me through my usual my-shoes-are-filled-with-concrete moment from about mile 1.5-1.8, and we did it! So much fun to run with good friends and smash through imagined barriers!

Here we are after our run! What a great night!

Funk

So I have not been feeling the best lately, I have really bad seasonal allergies and this year they are the worst they have ever been.  I can not breath unless I take my medication and I hate taking medication.  It makes me feel all strange but I guess I need to breathe.  Sunday on my long run I had a bad run.  It was hot and I had to walk a lot.  I actually have not run since then because I just do not feel good.  Today I was exhausted.  The girls would not sleep last night and I couldn't breathe.  I woke up feeling like crap again.  I took the girls to preschool and I had two choices.  To take a nap or to go for a run.  It was hard I was so tired but I set out to do an  "easy" 4 miles.  I did it I ran the whole way and when I came to the bottom of the big hill before the end of my run, I found my favorite motivating running song,  "Lose Yourself" by Eminem.  I turned it up and went for it facing the hill head on, the lines "feet fail me not" and "You can do anything you set your mind to, man" stuck out to me today.  I am now sitting here post run still tired and still struggling to breathe but I feel stronger, every step, every hill helps me feel this way.  I feel like running to the top of the hill helped me out of my funk and I feel ready to run again ( tomorrow).