Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

the road ahead

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I’ve been trying my darnedest not to get too caught up in what I’m not doing running-wise. The key word here is trying. I’ve not accomplished this task very well. Instead, I’ve eyed my training calendar, examined my miles run, and tried to rework my training schedule. In the end, the plan I laid out for Big Sur is the best plan for my goal of having a good race.

I have no time goals for Big Sur. I want only to finish uninjured and ready to launch into more serious training for my A-race. Big Sur is a training marathon. I hope to do what I love (run), take in the sights, and just enjoy myself. But that won’t happen without a good amount of training. Big Sur is one challenging course.

No matter how you look at it, the only option is to buckle down and work the plan as best as I can. Coming off injury takes a lot of careful balancing of pushing and backing off. The first push was to get back on road. So today, I laced up and tested out the ankle.

At first, the run felt off-kilter. My legs felt rubbery and my ankle stiff. I took it easy and kept going, and soon all felt okay. With 3 miles behind me, I am looking forward to the road ahead — of which there is plenty.

sweat-soaked

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I love to sweat — L-O-V-E it! For me, sweating is a symbol of strength and courage. I wear my sweat-soaked athletic wear in much the same way as a medal earned after a marathon. That is to say that I wear it proudly.

Unfortunately, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to get the kind of workout that yields a good sweat. My ankle is slowly improving but it isn’t 100% healed. Visible signs of stress threaten to set me back in my training even farther less I back off from running. I complied.

While YaYa and the neighbor kids played, I had my bike hooked up to the trainer and pedaled away in my backyard. The sun warmed my skin, while the wind blew just often enough to keep me from heating up. I listened to my music and enjoyed the confirmatory drops beading up on my arms and face and rolling down my back.

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Breath deep

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My thoughts have been suffering from a severe state of flightiness and irrational tendencies this week.  I blame it on a respiratory bug I’ve picked up in the final days of my time off.

As you may have know from your own experience with illness, returning to work in a state of hypoxia is not conducive to productive days.  Instead, I am left in a perpetual daze while sniffling, sneezing, stuffy head, fever…and spewing forth germs all over my colleagues.  Therefore…I took the day off.

While I am trying to work from home — because I have work to do, and I am salaried, which means nobody will do the work that was assigned to me because, let’s face it, they have their own work to do — I am not actually accomplishing much of anything work wise.

It doesn’t help that everything (the medicinal compound, protocol template, company policies) are NEW to me.   Even the version of MS Word that I’m working with is new. Here I am, lost a NyQuil daze, sucking on throat lozenges, sipping on tea, and getting nothing done.

It’s a beautiful day outside, and I want so badly to lace up my shoes, pull up my hair, and go for a run.  It’s been several days since I’ve been running.  If I was certain that running would help me to kick this illness into submission, I’d go for it — risking public humiliation of hacking and chucking pieces of lung along the way.  Unfortunately, I suspect the opposite will happen.  So, I am left to [attempt to] take a deep breath and attack my work once again.

No complaints

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Another BQ attempt is only 19 days from now.  I’m nervous and excited only it’s different than before.  This time around, my BQ is within reach (by 10 minutes).  It’s the good thing about aging.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve aged gracefully.  My recent fall had me wincing all day long and worried me enough to seek medical opinion.  The doctor checked out my bruised pelvis, knee, arms, neck, nose, and hand.  Multiple x-rays later, the verdict was that my wrist was not fractured and my elbow was “probably” not as well.

Due to swelling around my elbow, the physician could not provide me with 100% certainty that there was no fracture at all.  However, if there is one, it is minimal.  He suggested that I try running for about 20 minutes and test out how my body responds — so I did.

My body did not complain.  In fact, my body seemed to enjoy the movement .

“LISTEN HERE!”

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I am a firm believer in the notion of listening to your body.  This has been especially true as I ask my body to do things that most would never even dream of asking of their bodies — like training for and then running a marathon.

So, in the wee hours of the night as I grew more and more uncomfortable, I began considering that I might not need to run those missed training miles.  And, as I woke to the scolding of my sore neck yelling, “LISTEN HERE YOUNG LADY…” I decided that I didn’t need to complete the additional miles which were scheduled for today either.

Instead, I’ve eaten a small breakfast, downed 800 mg of Advil (along with my frequently forgotten multivitamin), draped a bag of corn across my neck, and crawled back into bed with a hot latte.

The need for a trip to the dreaded waiting room will be determined shortly.

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