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

I couldn't run today because of my shoulder!  It hurts so bad.  My arms were so sore Sunday and even more sore when I woke up Monday.  But Monday afternoon as I got a heavy box of bookkeeping papers down from a shelf in my office I hurt my right one even worse.  I can't even walk normally without pain.  So frustrating.  I'm wearing a sling.  My left one hurts too, but I can at least use it some.  With all the injuries I've had this year I now must add a shoulder problem to the list. 

Last night as I was telling my kids every little thing to do to get their own dinner my husband came home from work.  Everyone was extra glad to see him.  My daughter said to her dad, "I'm glad you didn't do the Spartan.  Then we wouldn't have any parents to do things for us."

Saturday I was able to run again after another whole week off. I met Melanie, Kim and a few other ladies I don’t know as well at Jane’s house. We ran up the Alpine Highway and out almost to the natural water slide and back. My right arm hurt a lot the first few miles, not the front muscle that seemed so injured earlier, but the side of my arm. Melanie rubbed it out and we kept going. A couple of miles later it didn’t feel as bad so that was nice. I made it out 9 miles. On our way down my quad started to hurt. I mile 15.5 I decided I would try to keep a decent pace for another ½ mile then slow down the last 2. Just a few steps later I had a shooting pain through my hamstring. I stopped and stretched and started again, going a lot slower and it felt ok. A mile later I felt the pain again. I stopped again to stretch and decided I would run until I felt the pain again or mile 17, whichever came sooner. At 17 miles I started walking and walked the last mile. My hamstring hurt afterwards. It was fine after the Spartan, but I wasn’t able to stretch much all week as I couldn’t even get up and down off the floor with my arms so hurt. Hopefully it will feel better next week.

4 miles

10 miles with 6 x 1/2 mile repeats. 

I was so tired I stayed in bed until 9:30 a.m. and didn't run at all.

8 miles up/down Suncrest.  This street is so hard to run up, up, up.  At mile 2 I felt like I was going to throw-up when we stopped for  a breather, stop again at mile 3 and again when we turned around at mile 4.  A lot easier coming down.

4 miles in the rain.

Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon.  This is my 5th year doing this race.  Every year I've run it faster than the last, but knew that wasn't going to happen this year.  I pulled out the split times from my 1:23:48 year a few years ago and shot for that.  I was worried about being trained for the distance, something I don't usually think about with 1/2 Marathons, but it turned out ok.

Splits: 6:36, 6:41, 5:56, 5:58, 6:10, 6:07, 6:21, 6:27, 6:37, 6:30, 6:32, 6:34, 6:28, last .1 6:14 pace. 

I was pleased with this time.  I know I'm not in as good of shape as I was the last two years.  Melanie and I drove down together without our families for this one, and stayed at her friends house the night before.  We iced in the river afterwards.  The 23 1/2 hour trip was fun.

4 miles

10 miles.  I got  up at 4:15 a.m. to run 10 miles before heading to girl's camp for the rest of the week.  My husband came with me on his bike.  That's true dedication/love, etc. 

6 miles early in the morning at Camp Shalom, our stake girl's camp.  Started at 9250 foot elevation and climbed to 9750 in a couple of miles on trails.  My 6 miles took about as long as 8 usually does.  Felt like 8.

3 miles on trails at Camp Shalom.  Felt like 4.

10 miles up/down Provo Canyon.  I got back from girl's camp around noon.  I should have left for the run at 7:00 p.m., and gone 18 miles but one thing led to another and we didn't leave until 9:20 p.m.  Brent came with me on his bike.  My head lamp doesn't work well and I could hardly see on the running trail.  I felt like the darkness was slowing me down.  When we got to Bridal Veil it was 10:00 p.m.  I was tired and had to get up early to speak about girl's camp in church the next day.  I also still had to make a pasta salad because it was my mom's farewell talk and we were having a bunch of family over for lunch afterwards.  Running at 10:00 p.m. seemed even more ridiculous than running at 4:30 a.m. so I turned around and only went 10. 

4 miles

12 miles with Melanie.  Parked at Bridal Veil Falls and ran up into South Fork for a warm-up.  Ran 6.2 miles fast down the canyon without stopping.  Two mile cool-down.  I really pushed myself and after lunch I felt like I was going to get sick if I didn't lay down.  I put in earplugs and took a 2 hour nap.

10 miles with Melanie.  We ran the last 10 miles of the Timp 1/2 course.  I had a lot of aches and pains and had a hard time imagining how I was going to run it fast on Saturday.

4 miles.  I didn't feel as good on this 4 mile run as I did the day before the Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon. 

Ran the Timp 1/2 Marathon.  Melanie and I met up with Kim and some of her friends to ride the bus to the starting line.  We warmed up a mile on the dirt road before the race.  I figured, since this race doesn't drop quite as much as the Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon does, that I would be happy with the same time, a 1:23:20.  I didn't have specific pace goals for any of it though.  I didn't want to run too hard coming out of the canyon and struggle the last three miles where the course is flat and then uphill.  I think I ran smart and was able to feel relatively good until the end. 

My time was 1:23:03 and my splits were as follows: 6:08, 6:09, 6:17, 6:12, 5:54, 5:59, 6:02, 6:18, 6:37, 6:41, 6:43, 6:47, 6:44, 6:16 pace for last .1

I think I'm getting my confidence back in being able to run farther.  A month or so ago I felt like I was slamming into the wall at about mile 12 even on an easy run.  Mostly I was just so happy to be running and not in pain.  Being injured off and on all spring has really made me grateful for these nice days in the summer when I'm able to run and feel good.  My hamstring hurt some after the run and bothered me the next morning, but it hurt a lot less than it did after the Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon and I think if it keeps improving at this rate I'll be pain free after my long runs in only a few more weeks.

4 miles

13 miles.  Melanie and I ran 13 miles on flat roads by her house.  We did 5 x .75 mile intervals with a stop to drink and a .3 mile recovery between each one.  The intervals weren't as fast as we did them last year, but we haven't done intervals in a long time.

I was so tired later in the afternoon that I took a 2 1/2 hour nap and still went to sleep just fine that night.