Evening three

Since I took Rava to the vet this morning, I postponed my run to this evening. I really don't like running after work. I'm just too tired and mentally out of the game. I even put on some music, but that didn't help much. I did three miles in 30 minutes not including a five minute warm up and a five minute cool down. What also made the run hard was that I had the crockpot going all day and the house smelled great. I had a pretty small lunch, so I was jonesing to eat!

But I ran and I feel pretty good about it. My knees and back still are not great, but I am hoping Cherryl can fix me when she gets back. (She is the massage therapist I would go to, as she specializes in sports massage.) We'll see how the long run goes on Sunday and what Coach Mark has to say Monday.

OK, let's talk about Coach Mark. He used to work with Bill. Now he is one of the owners/founders of the Multisport Performance Institute, a triathlete training facility. I called to set up an appointment so that he could check my running form. If my form is causing me to have back and knee trouble, I want to fix it immediately. I think I still have time before the half marathon to learn new form. But Coach Mark thinks that muscle tightness and microtears from the higher intensity of training may be causing a good part of the problem and massage is the answer. In fact, he said I should get a massage weekly ideally during this training. Every other week at least. While I really like this idea (it sounds so relaxing and pampering ... can I get a pedicure on the same schedule?), we'll have to see. I know it is starting to get hard on Cherryl. I think her last week at the salon is coming up or may have just passed. Coach Mark also recommended Trigger Point Therapy. He said that Running Wild has kits for this and can show me how to properly use them. Mark believes in them so much, he says he carries one of the rollers in his car so he can work out the kinks. Maybe I'll drop by there Monday after our meeting and check them out.

In other news, after talking about it for months, I signed up for the Double Bridge Run, a 15k in February! I've been looking forward to it for a while. I just had to make the commitment. So now I'm in. I have something big to look forward to each month: a 12 mile training run in December, a half marathon in January, the Double Bridge Run in February, and seeing Bill for R&R in March. That should make the next several months fly by, which is just fine by me!

It is funny how the distances of the runs have changed in my mind. Once a three mile run was HUGE! Now it is the minimum I do. As in, "I'll just do a quick three miles this morning to get the blood flowing." Then I was nervous about the 15k. I was training for a 10k and thought that was long. I was running for a WHOLE HOUR! This past Saturday I did eight miles and felt good enough at the end that I could have done another mile if it wasn't getting dark. My long run this week is nine miles. A 15k is 9.32 miles. After this Sunday and for sure after next Sunday (a ten mile day) I won't have to worry whether I can do 15k; I'll have my answer. In the beginning, I was running 4 or 5 miles a week. Now I'm at almost 20. Wow! That is pretty crazy. I never thought I'd get there!

Saturday is the Wild Turkey Trot 5k at Seville Quarter. It's perfect since Saturday is a three mile day in my training plan. I would like to push myself to a new PR. I'll let you know how that goes.

Bill has been running quite a bit. I dare say he's following my training plan. No surprise, I knew that he'd do that when he asked for it (as he said "to keep me honest"). Now he's looking for some new shoes, as his are pretty old. I have heard from many people that you should replace your shoes every 350 to 500 miles, or every 12 months, depending on what your training is. If he wants to keep running, he should get new shoes. I hesitate for him to buy them online, but I know there is no alternative at this time. If we remain serious about running, the next time he gets shoes we'll go to a place where we can try them on and get them fitted to his gait.

Update on Rava: she hasn't thrown up tonight so far. I'm hoping to see her poop tonight, so I can know the food is going through her. Maybe it was a little stomach bug and not anything else.