SMALL VICTORY

The first few minutes of last night’s run were miserable. I came ‘this close’ to turning around and heading home. But I didn’t and my leg did loosen up or go numb – one of the two. I decided to head to the track for a marathon paced workout; 3 x 2 miles with an 800 meter jog in between.

I started off easy, not knowing what to expect. Since I have in my mind that there’s really no point in running Grandma’s unless I can take a crack at sub-3, I started out at 7:00 pace. The pain in my leg actually felt better once I picked up the pace. Maybe that has something to do with being more efficient at a faster pace. There was still a dull ache with each stride, but I found that if I focused on something else, like my breathing, the pain was manageable. As long as I know that I won’t do further damage, I should be able to handle the pain. I ended up running 13:39, 13:44 and 13:42 for the repeats, which is right around 3:00 pace. So that's small victory. Aerobically I felt fine – probably since I should be running about 15-20 seconds faster per mile.

I made an appointment for Monday with the chiropractor who’s been giving me adjustment for the last 6 months. I have a dream that I have a pinched nerve and with an adjustment, everything will be fine; I’ll be back to running “normal” just in time for Grandma’s. I’ll PR by 3 minutes and then look back and laugh at this whole process. I might as well win the lottery too while I’m at it.

I’ll end with another Bob Kennedy quote from the interview I posted yesterday.

Quote of the day:
“Another thing was identifying athletes and groups of athletes better than me and seeking them out as people to train with and learn from. One of the things I learned was levels of intensity. Our minds--we sometimes subconsciously set barriers in our mind about what is hard and what’s not hard, and I found very quickly that what I thought was hard was actually a whole other level than what I was capable of doing. That’s a personal thing, meaning that you have to find your own barriers and your own limitations, and that’s what I think all of this is all about: honestly seeking out what your limitations are.” – Bob Kennedy