New Pain

I didn't run so much last week so I really needed to get out pounding the pavement this week. I had to get back on the training schedule. My goal was a minimum of 30 miles. I only missed one training run so it was a good week. I ran 5, 9, 20 miles this week. YEAH!

After school Monday Rachael and I did a quick Ethanol Loop. It seemed to be a bit hard, but it was a good run to recover from Saturday's run.

Tuesday was so very hot and I took a personal day Wednesday so I waited until early Wednesday morning to run. J called asking if I wanted to run in the morning so I would get up early and go out. She was going to run 9 miles so that was perfect! I thought, what's another mile this week? I couldn't get Rachael out of bed, but figured she needed the rest so I let her sleep. We met up with a couple running buddies so we started as a group of 4. After 4 miles, one person left the group as we sped up a bit. I ran on grass for the first time since I've been training. I think I'll stick to the gripping pavement. However, running through the sprinklers on the golf course was a welcome surprise in the heat and humidity. lol I started feeling rough, but finished 9 miles at an average 9:35 pace. That felt great to be able to cut 25 seconds/mile off my time, at least for one run. They remaining two finished one more mile at sub 9 minutes.

I didn't get the last short run in due to schedule and then thought it would be too close to the big run and I really wanted to get one more 20 miler in before the marathon. Only 34 more days until the start gun! So I opted out of the shorter 5 mile run.

Saturday morning came and I knew it would be about 3 1/2 hr run so I got up at 4:00 because we had a busy schedule today. We were out the door within 30 minutes and it was about 40 degrees cooler. J called and said she wanted to go out in 1/2 hr!! Dang we didn't get the start time we wanted and were running late. I wanted to do an Ethanol Loop before picking her up. We did about 3 miles and came back for her. She wanted to do 10 miles with us so that went really fast! It took me about 9-10 miles to get in a groove and my legs felt like lead. I just couldn't get it going the first half. Finally I settled into a groove and I was off! The longer I ran, the better I felt. After 13 we stopped back to refill beverages. We finished the 20 miles and it felt great.

About 2 hrs after the run I got a nasty groin pain. It was a shooting, sharp pain under the scar where I had a hernia when I was about 5 years old. I usually get pain in my outside hip; I'm guessing it's IT Band. Today it was like the pain had shifted to my groin. Hope I didn't pull something. I feel like I can go up/down stairs just fine, but after about the first 3-4 steps, there's a pain that about makes me crumble to my knees. Good news: I didn't have much shin pain this week. Yeah!

I am still battling the scale, too. I got the pictures from Drake and was discouraged by what I saw! I knew the Battle of the Bulge was on, but woah! I look awful. My legs are really huge and the waistline is robust and I need to do something. I wonder how I can run long distances and eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and yet still not lose weight. I know the math of burn calories > consuming calories = weight loss, but this is crazy. My speed is increasing and my distance is increasing, but the pounds and inches are not decreasing. Stress and hectic schedules just might be winning this battle. :(

Weekly training mileage: 34 miles