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

12 miles.  This was a big bump up in miles.  I felt good running until the last mile, but I also had a lot of stops to stretch.  My right butt started tightening up towards the end.  That made my hamstring hurt later.  I think if I would have stopped at 10 I would have felt a lot better afterwards. 

Melanie and I warmed up 3 miles on our way to the starting line of a 3 mile downhill race.  We ran past the starting line abut 1/4 mile down a hill to a port-o-potty.  The busses hadn't dropped off the runners yet.  It was time for the race to start when we began running back up the hill towards the race.  We hoped it would start a little late, but it didn't.  The race started a minute before we got there.  I wasn't registered or planning to go fast, but Melanie was.  We started late and had to wind through all the slow people. 

We met up with Melody after the race for a cool-down.  We ran back along the race to pick up the clothes we left at the port-o-potty and back.  I was so happy to finally be feeling "normal" for most of the run. 

I didn't have time to do the PT exercises and stretching I wanted to do.  Then I sat in the car driving to St. George for 4 hours.  My hamstring hurt later in the day, so that was discouraging, but not near as much as it hurt a month ago.  I don't have all the tight spots fully worked out and I still need to be more flexible, but I'm making progress and I was happy to feel good doing 12 miles.  I finally got a little "runner's high" again.

4 miles, PT exercises, stretching, etc.

7 miles.  Ran the last 7 miles of the Utah Valley Marathon course with a 8 other women.

  I kept thinking I would get around to doing my PT exercises and stretching all day, but things kept coming up.  I felt like I was running around all day.  I finally had time to do a few after we got home from my son's baseball game at 10:15 p.m.  Ridiculously later for 9 and 10 year olds. 

4 miles, PT exercises, stretching and sat in Epsom salt tub digging out tight spots.  Made this a priority today.  It took a while so I felt like that was the only thing I accomplished in the morning.

10 miles up/down Provo Canyon by myself.  My right hamstring hurt just a tiny bit and I had a hard time telling if it was still being pulled a little by the tight spots in my butt or if it was just the bruise I gave myself digging into it that was hurting. 

It must have been pulled a little because later in the day it hurt more.  I was frustrated but reminded myself that I went 10 miles and it hurt less than it did after the 12 I did on Saturday.

6 miles.  I parked my car 2 miles from the finish of the Utah Valley Marathon and ran back along the course 4 miles to mile 20 so I could cheer for people I know and run Melanie in.  I met Melanie at mile 20 and started running with her. 

2 miles later I was looking over at her talking when I stepped on a small rock in the middle of a little gravel in the road and ROLLED MY ANKLE!  My right ankle, the one I sprained in March!  It still has a big bump on it from the sprain three months ago.  It hurt bad when I did it, but I hoped the pain would quickly go away, sometimes sprains are like that.  I sat down on the curb and the pain only got worse.  I really felt like I was going to cry, it hurt so bad.  After several minutes I tried to walk and that hurt even more.  I called my husband to pick me up. 

We drove along the race and cheered for Melanie.  I wanted to walk the last .2 down to the finish to see people after the race, but after walking about .03 I decided I couldn't do that.  I am seriously having such a bad spring!

Met Melody and Marie at Provo Canyon in hopes I would be able to run.  I went a mile with them and quickly realized  my ankle was hurting to bad.  I walked back to my car and went home, stopping at Harmon's on the way.  I realized if I got right on my bike I would still run into them up the canyon.  I rode up the canyon from my house and turned around with them on their way down.  I rode by Marie and Melody as they finished up their last little bit.  So I didn't get much of a workout but at least I got to visit some.

I decided I must need to eat more salt.  Last week my legs and feet started cramping on me again.  I'll be stretching and my foot will cramp, or I'll be laying in bed and my butt will cramp.  It's so frustrating.  I got a good vitamin and multi-mineral supplement with potassium and magnesium that I started taking a few weeks ago, but I realized I eat a very low sodium diet.  Last week I purposefully ate some extra salty French fries on Thursday and again on Friday and felt a lot better for a few days.  Then I went back to eating normal and last night I started cramping again.  I really don't eat anything salty and I don't salt anything.  I purposefully cut back on my salt when my blood pressure was a little higher than normal a few times last fall, and also because my sister is having blood pressure issues and it runs in my family. 

My foot hurt me most of the day.  The pain ran along the inside of my sprained ankle foot.  I've actually had this pain before and it was caused by a tight spot on the top outside part of my foot, making my arch fall in more etc.  I dug on the huge lump on the top outside of my foot three times this day and each time it seemed to help with the pain.  I could walk pain free by the end of the day but didn't have much confidence about running the next day.

I met Melody, Dessire, Marie and Rebecca for a run.  I didn't want to get too far from home in case my foot started hurting more.  We ran down Center street, along Canyon Road and up the Canyon a mile then headed back.  The other girls turned around before Melody and I on the canyon stretch so we didn't finish with them I ended up with 8 miles.  My foot started with a dull ache and actually felt better when I finished.  still a little hamstring issue going on though.

4 miles.  My ankle was throbbing by the end of the day yesterday and I had a sharp pain when I got up.  After some rubbing and stretching it felt ok to go 4 miles.  My hamstring still isn't 100% either.

Ran the AF Canyon 1/2 Marathon with Kim and Melanie.  We were not registered and Jane was nice enough to give us a ride to the top.  I was relieved Kim and Melanie are still recovering a little from their marathon and wanted to take it easy and stop for drinks and to stretch.  We walked through the water stops and I stretched every time.  I was happy my ankle felt good.  Thursday it really hurt going down a hill and AF is a lot of downhill.  My left butt started feeling tight around mile 10 which pulled on my hamstring.  I was worried I might have a problem with it later.  13 miles felt long to me, in that my legs felt very tired the last two miles.  I massaged my butt really good at the end as we stood there talking to people.  When I got home I stretched and dug into my hamstring, iced my leg and took 800 m of Ibuprofen every 4 hours the rest of that day.  I took it for my ankle, but think it actually really helped the hamstring to not flair up.  I wish I had started doing that two months ago.  I was so encouraged when I only had a tiny bit of hamstring pain later in the day. 

4 miles

10 miles with Melanie up/down Provo Canyon.  My quads were sore from running down AF Canyon on Saturday.  My legs seriously felt like I raced but at the time I didn't think I was pushing it that hard. 

10 miles with Melanie along running trail near her house, mostly flat. 

4 miles

14 miles down AF Canyon with Melanie and Kim.  I told my husband that run kicked my butt last week and made my quads way too sore so I needed to do it again.  We warmed up a mile at the top then started down.  No tempo, lots of stopping for drinks, etc.  I got very tired at about mile 12 and the last 2 were hard.  But the next day my quads were just tired instead of sore so that was encouraging.  My hamstring hurt a little the first several miles, but after stretching my butt several times it felt fine.  It did bother me more later in the day though.  I started to feel discouraged about that but reminded myself that compared to last weekend I ran 1 mile farther, a little faster and it hurt less. 

4 miles

10 miles with Melanie.  We ran a new way from her house in Lehi, flat roads out by the farms.  Great route with hardy any cars.  Did 6 x 1/2 mile repeats.  The last one was hard.  I would have had a difficult time doing 8 today.  This is the first "speed" work I've done in about 8 weeks. 

I only did a little yoga in my family room.  I'm so frustrated with my hamstring.  It flared up after my run Tues and bothered me all day Wed.

Ran 9.5 miles with Melanie and Melody.  We met at Provo Canyon and did the hilly route that took us past Timp View High School and up by the Provo Temple.  When we got to Rock Canyon Park we only had 4.75 miles.  It was enough.  We headed back and by the time we got to the canyon we didn't care about getting in 10. 

On the bright side, although my hamstring bothered me a little on the run, when I got home I rubbed on a different spot, in a different way which seemed to immediately help.  A few hours later and I'm actually feeling pretty good.

I did the Spartan Beast 12+ miles with 30+ obstacles.  I had so much fun doing this race last year that I immediately signed up for it again.  Last year I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect and this year I was nervous because I knew what it was like and I felt underprepared.  Then Josse's friend Tie said the race was harder this year, she works with the Spartan team, and she was right.  The trails were steeper and the obstacles more exhausting. 

The route and order of the obstacles was all different this year.  Lots of steep trails, climbing walls, crawling under things and through muddy trenches, dragging heavy tires and cinderblocks, flipping tires, carrying sandbags, carrying cinderblocks, carrying buckets full of rocks, climbing ropes and rope ladders, crawling under barbed wire, walking on poles, etc.  If you fail and obstacle you have to do 30 burpees and your chest had to touch the ground.  I failed four, falling off the poles, my javelin throw missed it's mark by inches and I couldn't climb the two ropes. 

On my last set of burpees less than a quarter mile from the finish my sister Sandra was standing next to me yelling, "Come on, you can do it.  Speed up, this girls doing her burpees twice as fast as you."  On about 20 I said, "I feel like I'm going to cry."  Then I rolled and crawled under about a 100 yard stretch of muddy barbed wire, climbed another wall, ran through fire and past the gladiators banging you with big poles and across the finish line.  I put my arms in the air with a feeling of gratitude I was even able to do it and at the same time felt very glad to be done. 

The Elite men started 15 minutes before the Elite women so I never saw my brother.  He finished 15 min before me beating me by 19 seconds.  I wish we could have done it together.  The first thing I said to him was, "This was so hard."  He agreed, it was harder than last year.  My arms were so tired I could hardly lift my banana to my mouth.  I rode home in a daze, saying, "It was so hard Brent, It was so hard.  I can't believe I did that."  Then I said, "I don't think I'll do it again next year," and my husband said, "Well good, you got that out of your system."