Finally an Update

It's been two weeks since my last post. Life has been busy with not much time to read or write blogs. In my last blog entry I was anticipating running with Lauren in Little Rock. We did manage to get in a couple of good runs together. On Tuesday (2/3/09) we ran a little over 7 miles together at about a nine minute pace - two laps of a 3.55 mile course. It was a very hilly route not far from where Lauren lives.

On Wednesday she was busy, but I ran a slightly different route at a pretty hard effort; 8 miles at an 8:15 pace. It felt much faster, but those hills sure slow you down. Just to put the hills in perspective, the "hilly" 9 mile route that our group ran from RunnersWorld past Swan Lake and back had just over 200 feet of ascent and 200 feet of descent. The 8 miles I ran in Little Rock had nearly 450 feet of ascent and 450 feet of descent. That's over twice as hilly. I don't want to hear any more complaints about hills! :)

Thursday Lauren and I ran the four mile hilly route. This time we took it at a pretty easy pace - about 9:45 per mile. At the end of the first loop Lauren's hamstrings were a bit tight, so we decided to stop. I really needed to stop too. I had a pain low on my right shin that started hurting after my Wednesday night run, and I probably shouldn't have run on Thursday, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Anyway, I had an absolutely fabulous time running with Lauren, and I'm glad I ran with her on both days. She is a very good runner, and with a little more of that hill training, she will be leaving us all in the dust soon.

On Saturday (2/7/09) I ran 19 miles, seven of them with the whole group, and the rest with Larry, Bill, Kathy, Patty and maybe a couple of others. My shin hurt every step of the way, but otherwise it was a good long easy run. The next few days I didn't run because the shin pain had worsened. Finally on Thursday (2/12/2009) I decided to give it another try. At noon I ran 4 miles and felt miserable. So, I decided it was time to take a break from running. Thursday evening instead of running I just manned the water station. That was fun because I got to chat with some runners that I hadn't had an occasion to talk with before.

On Saturday I showed up for all the group runs - at 6:00, 6:30, 6:45, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00, but I didn't run, myself. I really had a good time starting all the groups on their routes and seeing them complete their long runs. I did run just a little bit - some with Joye and some racing the poker runners to try to set up to take pictures. I must have run a total of maybe a mile, but it was way too much. I was limping by the end of the morning. I did 22 miles today, but that was on a stationary bike.

I'm thinking that within a week I should be able to resume running, but we will see. In the meantime I will enjoy cross training and manning the water stations!