"If we don't suffer enough we won't remember it."

30 min bike

14 miles in Lehi with Melanie @ 6:55 pace.  The first 10 miles were pretty good, but then the cold got to us.  The last 4 felt harder.   

Hamstring only hurt a little off and on.  Very little pain in my hamstring later in the day, which was encouraging.  For the past two weeks or so it has really flared up after runs.

My foot looks horrible.  Seriously any tips for a sprained ankle?  I iced it several times the first 24 hours, did warm Epsom salt followed by ice on Fri.  Sat my workout seemed to reduce some of the swelling, but when I sat for a while in the afternoon the swelling got worse.  When church ended today it was just as swollen as Fri/Sat!  I just did more epsom salt.  Maybe I need to keep it elevated?  This is so frustrating.  About 80% of my ankle and foot is black and blue!  Really black and blue!

30 min bike.  Thought I could probably run, but becided to do one more cross train day so I can get in a good workout tomorrow.  Hamstring almost better.

10 miles with Melanie and Emily.  Ran from my house to Orem High track, 6 x 800 meters, ran back home.  My thermometer sais 25 degrees, but the wind was blowing so hard it felt like 10 degrees and my times showed it, 3:00, 3:02, 3:02, 3:02, 3:02, and 3:05.  I started laughing when I saw the last one, because I felt like I was going so hard and still being so slow.  My calves were also really tight.

At lunch time I was encouraged because my hamstring felt so good.  It didn't bother me at all on the run and wasn't acting up one bit.  I was in the process of emptying the dishwasher in the afternoon when the phone rang and I spent about 20 min in the office.  As I walked around the corner of my island in my kitchen I forgot I left he dishwasher open and tripped on it.  As I fell I thought, "If I land on this door I'll break it right off."  Not wanting to purchase a new dishwasher I put my hands out for the floor and tried my best to avoid it.  I hit my knee on the corner of the open dishwasher door as I fell and landed on my side on the floor.  As I lay on the ground with my hands on my knee, tears coming to my eyes and breathing like I was having a baby I thought, "If I can't run because of this I'm going to be so mad."  Then I thought, "I'm glad I swept the floor this morning."  Then I realized it felt a little sticky where my face was on the floor and I thought, "I would have mopped if I knew I was going to be laying on the floor for this long."

Later in the afternoon and evening all my hamstring problems seemed to come back, the tightness, pinched nerve pain, etc.  I'm so mad at myself. 

skipped out on spin class and everything else.  My knee is swollen and hurts to put weight on it bent.  Hamstring still hurting too.

What is wrong with me?  I'm seriously having such bad luck.  I spent about 3 hours over the last 2 days, since I fell over my dishwasher door, working out all the kinks in my muscles and actually felt really good running today.  I felt good, that is, until I stepped on a rock and sprained my ankle!

We warmed up 2 miles then ran 3 miles hard @ 6:19, 6:28, 6:35.  That last one was slightly uphill.  Then we drank and ran about a half mile before the second part of the run, 3 x 1 mile with a minute rest between.  My times on that were 6:17, 6:23, 6:23.  Finished feeling tired, but so happy that my hamstring didn't bother me and that my knee, although black and blue, didn't hurt either.

Barely into the 2 mile cool-down I stepped on a small rock and rolled my ankle.  I stopped and lay down on the road saying, "I'm having such bad luck!"  I couldn't believe it.  At least I didn't fall when I twisted it.  I was able to walk ok if I didn't totally relax my foot and let it do it's normal full range of motion.  Every once in a while I got a shooting pain through it though.  Melanie ran home and came back in the car to get me.  I'm glad I walked.  If I tried to run the last 2 miles I probably would have injured it more or favored it and run funny making something else hurt.  So stupid!

My ankle was swolen and I couldn't walk normally.  I biked for 30 minutes, which actually took the swelling down a little and made it feel better.  Went home, soaked it in Epsom salt, showered and iced it.  It seemed to be improving, but then I sat at my computer working for a few hours and when I got up it was more swollen and hurt worse.  Decided not to run the next day.

Went to the Legacy Center.  Bike 30 min, elliptical 30 min, bike 15 min, stairmaster 10 min.  Not near as much fun as running outside and I didn't feel like I got a very good workout.  My ankle is black and blue all over.  I can walk normally now, but still with a little pain.  Hoping to run Tues.

My ankle is so stupid!  Stop swelling up and just get better!

Elliptical for 30 min.

10 miles with Melanie in Lehi.  It felt so good to go running again.  My ankle is all black and blue, but it didn't hurt.  When we started it felt a little swolen, a few miles into the run my shoe felt really loose.  I had loosened the laces on my sprained ankle foot a few days ago and had just slipped them on.  I tightened them up and my foot went numb.  I stopped two other times to loosen them a little and my foot finally got feeling back the last 2 miles.  We did 11 x 1 min faster with 2 min slower.

I was highlighted in the Utah Valley Magazine's "FAB 50" article: 

http://blog.uvmag.com/marchapril13/31.html

10 miles with Melanie, Melody and Emily.  Felt extra tired avg 7:08.

Ran the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon in Saratoga Springs.  This course was basically three different loops off the same main road that started and finished at the same place.  It was hilly and somehow seemed 2/3 uphill and only 1/3 downhill.

I wasn't paying attention to the person telling me where to go at one point, mile 9, and started running down the wrong street.  There was no one I could see in front of me at the time.  I heard the runner behind me yell at me and I turned around and ran back.  I was mad the person directing the runners didn't yell at me sooner.  I probably ran down the street for 6 or 7 seconds, stopped looked back, wondered what was going on, and then had to run the 6 or 7 seconds back. 

It's a miracle I could run with my ankle looking the way it does.  It still has a big bump on it, swells up when I sit for any length of time and hurts to rub on just about anywhere on my foot.  Somehow it hardly hurts to run though, which is an answer to prayers. 

I felt good running the race I think mostly on account of my taking so much time off for this stupid hamstring issue and my ankle sprain.  I felt well rested and that makes a big difference for me. 

I'm never lifting weights on my hamstrings again.  They are still causing me so much trouble.  Did the elliptical for 30 min and some sit-ups.

Ran 10 miles with Melanie.  We did 5 x .75 miles @ 6:01, 6:08, 6:07, 6:18, and 6:17 pace.  I felt really tired doing these.  It was a little discouraging to be doing them so slow.  Last summer I ran them in under 6 min pace on the same stretch of road. 

30 min elliptical and a few weights.  My  hamstrings are getting a lot better.  I've dug into them and rubbed them out a lot this week.  Hoping to be able to run more than 3 times next week.  I haven't run more than 3 days a week for over a month now. 

10 miles up/down Provo Canyon on highway starting at Nun's Park with Melanie and Melody.  I stepped on a broken up part of the edge of the road right when we started running and twisted by already sprained ankle.  It really hurt when I first did it, but wasn't reinjured bad enough to not run.  This was a hilly run and my hamstrings hurt.  We didn't have any water and that affected me towards the end.  I couldn't keep up the last several miles. 

When I got home my left quad started hurting when I walked up the stairs.  I walked around the rest of the day feeling so frustrated.  My left quad hurts, both my hamstrings hurt and my ankle hurts.  I've decided I'm not going to lift weights on my hamstrings again.  They were almost better then I lifted last Wednesday and my problems started all over again.  My hip flexers are like that too.  I just can't lift on them or BAM! big problem.

18 miles with Melanie and Kim.  My husband was so nice to get up at 5:45 a.m. to drive us 18 miles up into Provo Canyon.  We started about 3 miles past the Wallsburg turnoff and ran down to the River Woods Shopping Center.  There was snow on the ground and it was in the 20's.  I felt really good the first 9 miles.  Then the cold started to get to me and I felt tight.  When Melanie said we had gone 9 I said, "We're only 1/2 way?"  I did ok for about another 5 and it seemed like we got to 14 pretty quick.  Then I felt like I slammed into a wall.  I was exhausted and everything started to hurt.  Our pace to mile 17 was 6:55 average, which would have been good on an out and back, but this was down the canyon.  I decided to stop at 17 but we were still 1/2 mile from the cars.  We walked .1 then decided to run since walking takes so long and it was cold.  When we got to the cars we already had .4 and Melanie convinced me to do another .6 for 18.  The last mile was 7:45 average mostly around the parking lot.  I'm not trained for the distance. 

12 miles with Melanie and Emily up/down Provo Canyon.  We ran up 6 miles then did 15 x 30 sec fast with 90 sec slower.  I was ok on the faster part but then I wanted to be done.  Our cool-down the last 2 miles was hard. avg 6:59.

10 miles with Melanie, Emily and Melody in Lehi.  We ran the ankle sprain route, which is pretty flat.  Warm-up 2 miles, 3 mile tempo (6:24, 6:37, 6:32), drink & stretch break, 3 mile tempo (6:22, 6:33, 6:37), 2 mile cool-down. 

I feel a little better, like I'm finally getting all my tight spots under control.  Still some work to do though.  My ankle doesn't hurt me the rest of the day after a run and I'm not hobbling so much when I get out of bed.  It still has a bump that hurts to push on and I don't quite have my full range of motion yet.

Still frustrated with my hamstring.  I guess we'll see how well I can run a marathon on only 3 days of training a week.

18 miles with Melanie down Provo Canyon on the highway.  My husband dropped us off at the Wallsburg turnoff.  We ran 2 miles into Wallsburg then turned around and ran down the Canyon.  We stayed on the highway until Canyon Glen then got on the trail to the Riverwoods.  

I felt a lot better than last week and our pace was much faster, avg 6:43.  I guess that's what 20 degrees warmer and the wind at our backs will do.  Last week it was 25 degrees in Orem when we started, colder up the canyon, and didn't warm up at all.  This week it was 45 degrees in Orem when we started and warmed up quite a bit. 

Melanie wasn't feeling as good as me towards the end.  At about mile 15.5 she said, "I feel like I'm doing a death march."  I looked at my watch and said, "Well at least you're death marching a 6:30 pace."  We slowed down to 6:40's the last few, still a good pace.