Two Words

Double. Digits.

Today, Kevin and I ran 10 miles! It was amazing in every way. I'll try to recap the highlights from today (as well as the rest of Week 5):

Trail

We ran a different canal today. Instead of running the Consolidated Canal that I've been running every Sunday for the past few months, we headed out to the Eastern Canal. Here's the canal map link again in case anyone is interested. We started at Guadalupe Road right by the Riparian Preserve. All I can say is that it is a GORGEOUS trail (and also, I love the word "riparian." It's way underused. ) Below is a picture from inside the Preserve which isn't actually where we ran but even the canal trail was very pretty. I saw quite a few unusual birds as I ran. It kept things interesting.

Thanks to Ashley for suggesting this canal trail. It was a really nice change of scenery.

Weather

Two other words that describe today: Perfect Weather. Today was one of those days where it was SOOO perfect (weather-wise) that it almost seemed too good to be true. But it WAS true. . . the best truth . . . called AMAZING Arizona.

When I started my run (I started about 30 minutes before Kevin to account for my slower pace), it was probably 52 degrees, and by the time I finished, it was probably 65 degrees. The sky was soooo clear and blue. Today made up for all of the sweaty hot days I ran this summer. I heart Arizona.


Bellabelle

DON'T WORRY! Despite the way it looks in this picture I just took of Bella as she sleeps right by me as I blog, she did not die on our run this morning. She's just really lazy, and this is often her sleep position of choice.

I ran with Bella for the first 6 miles today. She did really great for those 6 miles and honestly, there probably no reason she couldn't have gone further. However, I was feeling anxious enough about today's run (see below) that I had prearranged for Rick to meet me and take Bella because I didn't want to get to mile 9 and be having to question if she was too tired when I was already really tired myself. I wanted to be able to focus.

She did so well on the first 6 miles that I really hated to make her stop, but I guess better safe than sorry. I REGRET not letting her run double digits today, but hindsight is always 20/20.

I especially felt bad because when I got back to the house she was SUPER puppy playful as if she wasn't one bit tired from the 6 miles.

I won't underestimate her next time.


Rick

Rick, being the world's best husband that he is, met me 90 minutes into my run and refilled my water. It was a total lifesaver because I had been dry for about a mile. I was so appreciative of him driving all the way out there to support me. Also, it was especially great because I got to look forward to seeing him part way through the run, and it gave me something to focus on. I love you babe!


Amazing Ashley

I know her name is just Ashley, but I like to call her Amazing Ashley on my blog, and today she really lived up to her name. The water refill with Rick was prearranged, and therefore as I ran, I was expecting to see him. About 3 miles after I left Rick to continue my run, and honestly JUST as I again ran out of water (which I hadn't planned), Ashley pulled up at one of the intersections to give me more water. When I saw her ahead of me I was so surprised that I got a little choked up. She refilled my water, and I was on my way again. All she said is, "You're doing great, and you've finished the hardest part!" It was just sooo cool.


Speed Work

Last week, I did my run on Tuesday morning as planned and then decided to change things up a little bit and meet Kevin at the track of a local community college, and do some "speed" work. I'm so slow. . . . I'm so slow that, at this rate, if I don't speed up, they will have torn down the finish line of the PF Chang's Marathon by the time I finish.

We had a really great time running some speed intervals around the track. Kevin is fast. I don't think he got as much from the workout as I did, but we'd sprint half a lap and then walk half a lap and we did this for 3 miles.

The BEST part of the evening workout is that we got to chat a ton as we "recovered" from the sprint by walking. It made the miles go by so quickly, and I really hope we do it again soon.

The WORST part of the workout was that after we were about 90% done, I started feeling something hurt high up in my thigh (but below my glutes) on the inside back of my leg.


Injury

It came on really suddenly, and it didn't feel like a "pull" or anything like that. I knew there was a higher risk of injury with doing speed work, and I feel like I created what I feared most. I took the risk because I HAVE to get faster, and I really don't think I'm going to improve much unless I do speed work.

So, since Wednesday night, I've been a slave to rehabbing my "injury" or whatever the heck it is. I've religiously taken Aleve, iced, heated, used the stick, and stretched the area in hopes of it feeling good enough for the long run. I even took Friday off from running (which was exceedingly hard because I felt like I was getting totally off track) to try to rest the area.

As of yesterday, I was still not feeling very optimistic about my ability to do the long run, and I didn't want to make it worse by trying to push through the pain. Mentally, I was really shaken by the idea that my running might be derailed by a stoopid muscle "thing," whatever it is/was. However, last night I made a decision that I would absolutely prepare for my run as if everything was going to be fine and that once I started running, if it felt like it was getting worse, I'd stop so that I didn't make negative progress on healing.

Obviously, from the title of the post, it was fine. I made it. My leg hurt the same in the first half mile as it did in the last half mile. Hurt is too strong of a word. I just "felt" it the entire time, but it never progressed, so I just kept running and running and running. By the end, the pain in my leg was masked by the pain in my knees and ankles, so it almost felt BETTER by the end (sorta).

Hopefully, I won't be immobile tomorrow.

It sucks that I didn't complete all my runs this week, but I'm glad that I listened to my body and let it recover a bit. Mostly I am just INCREDIBLY relieved that I was able to run today! Once I realized that my leg wasn't going to stop me from running today, I was so glad to be out there that I didn't care how tired I was.