6 miles x's 2 & a little panic

Last Saturday was the first real test of my abilities since my injury. After successfully completing 3 miles a few weeks ago & recovering from a very bad upper repsiratory infection, it was time to kick things up a notch & attempt 6 miles. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. Thankfully I had my friend Carissa to keep me company. She was nice enough to stick by my side the entire time & go at my pace. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was nice to catch up with what's been going on in her life, plus it kept my mind off the "run". I was surprised that my back didn't bother me at all & I was able to keep a steady pace the entire time. We were supposed to do 3 sets of hills at Shepherd & Memorial, but my legs & knee weren't in good enough shape to do more than one (I wasn't going to push it). In the end, I finished those first 6 miles in 1:37. Not great, but again, after not being able to walk to the corner, let alone around the block 7 months ago, I'm not going to complain.

Today was the 2nd attempt at 6 miles. My back had been a little sore from sleeping in an odd position the other day, but I was still determined to at least try. Two of our coaches were out of town so Ginny asked me to help out w/ the walkers (or should I say walker, since there was only 1 other than myself). We started out great, but very quickly, the woman I was with (Eva) started to get bad pains in her shins & had to stop every few steps to stretch. She hadn't done any warm-up so it was no surprise she was having trouble. The 1st mile was rediculously slow. After a while, she told me to just go on without her, that she would stay in the park & take her time, so I took off.

By the time I got around the loop at the park, I had a bad twinge in the lower right side of my back (near the top of my butt cheek). I almost decided to just go back to my car & end at 3 miles, but I stopped & stretched & strolled for a bit. After a short time, the pain went away & I got back up to full speed. I made it to Shepherd (& again, I skipped the hills) & made it back to the park with no further problems. Final time was 1:41. Again, not great, but faster than I thought it would be, given the slow start & my back problem.

I really, REALLY wish I could run again. Not being able to has been the real torture of getting back into training. I can't believe how much I miss it. When I'm walking, my body craves it. Plus, I feel like I'm not getting any real cardio excercise by just walking. After 6 miles I was barely breathing hard & except for the minor pain in my ass/lower back today, my muscles didn't feel any different. It's the end of the day & I'm not even stiff or sore.

I also hate that by not being able to run, it seriously limits how fast I can go. Today I was checking out the Nike Women's Marathon website & saw that there is a 6.5 hour time limit on the race & I started to have a minor panic attack. How the hell am I supposed to be able to walk a full marathon that fast? I think I'll just have to do the 1/2. But I don't want to. And I won't like it.

I want things back the way they were. :-\

Sick sick sick!

Still no work-outs. I managed to develop a very nasty upper respiratory infection this week. Monday I thought it was just allergies, but by Tuesday, I knew it was going to be worse than that. I even missed the last 2-1/2 days of work (something I absolutely hate to do in a new job, but my boss made me go home). It has NOT been fun. I had a high fever, chills, all over body aches, zero energy, non-stop coughing, & today was the 1st day I didn't cringe when I had to swallow my own saliva because it no longer felt like I was swallowing rusty razor blades. I'm still having trouble breathing but I have some super strong antibiotics & super strong cough medicine (with codeine!) helping me with that. The dr. told me if I still have trouble breathing in 3-4 days, to come back for a chest xray to make sure I didn't develop pneumonia. Here's hoping it doesn't come to that.