Week 9: Aches and Pains

This past week was a tapered-back week in terms of miles, and I was definitely thankful for that! Sunday's long run was "only" 7 miles.

I ended up taking off on Tuesday because of my achy knees. I just wanted to play it safe. I was able to complete all the rest of my training runs for the week without any problems. I assumed Sunday would be a piece of cake, especially since I had a 6-mile mid-week run, but I was most definitely wrong!

We start off our group runs each week going down a long hill. About a half mile in, I had a sudden, sharp pain in my right hip, forcing me to stop immediately and walk. Just as I feared having to stop on the side of the road and have one of my teammates tell the coach I needed help, it disappeared and I was able to keep running.

A few minutes later, I almost wished I'd had an excuse to stop, because we got caught in a torrential downpour. I basically felt like I was running fully clothed in the shower! I was thankful for the rain -- before that moment it was so humid I could barely breathe -- but it was definitely the hardest rain I've ever run in, and was dripping in my eyes despite the coverage from my glasses.

As I attempted to see the road through the rain, I started feeling pain in my left shin, again. Every time I think I'm over the shin splint, it comes back! Thankfully I'd brought my brace along, leaving it with the coach just in case. I grabbed it at the first water stop and wore it for the rest of my run.

The rest of the run was mostly uneventful, but it didn't feel very good. I was definitely glad that the mileage was short, because I'm not sure if I could have made it through anything longer.

Unfortunately the hip pain returned on Monday. Between that and the shin pain, I skipped today's run to be safe. I've done some research on my hip and am pretty sure it's Piriformis Syndrome, which is basically inflammation of a muscle that can cause pressure on the sciatic nerve. The pain's in the right spot, feels very much like sciatic nerve pain, and reacts well to the suggested stretches. It's been better today, so I'm probably going to try my 3-mile run tomorrow given that it's short and see how I feel. If I feel any pain tomorrow, I'll cut it short, skip Thursday's longer run and opt for more rest.

The rest is important, both for my overall progress and for this weekend! Not only will I be running 14 miles on Sunday morning, I'll be running in the New York Warrior Dash on Saturday afternoon. Warrior Dash is a 3.2 mile race on a ski slope with crazy obstacles, including jumping over fire and crawling through mud under barbed wire. I'll be running with several friends from Connecticut and a couple from back home in Rochester, including my friend Mike, who accompanied me on my 13 mile run a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be great, but exhausting to be sure! I'm also going to have to be very careful to avoid injury. In fact, I think I may hold back on sending my marathon recommitment paperwork in until after I've made it through this weekend, just in case!

And tomorrow is my big fundraising event -- Tastes 'N' Toasts in Blue Back Square! I've been hoping for good weather over the past week, but I'm still not sure what's going to happen. The forecast has been everything from 90% chance of rain to sunny! If the rain can stay away, we should hopefully have a good turnout. Unfortunately, if there's one thing I learned from my very first fundraising event in the center, it's that nobody in West Hartford likes to visit the center of town when it looks like rain!

Thanks so much to my week 9 sponsor, Sherry Haefele! Aunt Sherry officially brought the fundraising total to over $1,500!