Week in Review

After my sub-par week of running last week, I decided to get back on the running band wagon this week. And I kicked it off by officially changing my marathon status to half marathon for Houston. Relief!

Monday - 3 easy miles with Dave. He's getting over a cold and he just wanted to get through the run without feeling awful.

Tuesday - Yoga. Yes you read that right. I actually really liked this class. It wasn't really traditional yoga in the sense where your arms shake and you hold poses forever. It was more like an hour of stretching and I felt really relaxed afterward. Good thing, because I had to spend the rest of the evening with my entire family. :)

Wednesday - 5 miles with the 3 middle miles at a sub 8:30 pace.

Thursday - off

Friday - off

Saturday - Easy 5 miles with Dave. No watch, no heart rate monitor.

Sunday - 11 miles at an 8:45 pace.

The plan for Sunday was actually 15 miles working our way down to an 8:30 pace. The day started rough. I have a hard time on Sundays because I ALWAYS wake up with a headache (I can't oversleep or else it gives me headaches), so I just wasn't feeling well from the start. Then I had to wait over an hour for Dave to wake up. In addition, he didn't have his Garmin or iPod charged and plugged them in before we were to leave. I threw my Garmin at him, told him I'd figure out the distance, and just left. The first mile I did by myself, then I waited for him to catch up. Then he pushed the pace to wear I wasn't comfortable and it was all downhill from there. Here's the problem:

I have monsters in my belly.

Okay, maybe not monsters, but I have an ulcer. I don't think I've talked about this yet on the blog. Five years ago I started developing some pain in my lower chest. I was tested out the yin yang for everything. I had an asthma test, I had an EKG, I had a CT scan, and finally they concluded nothing. The pain persisted but was manageable. Last year as I was training for IM Louisville the pains came back and became a constant burn. I saw the doctor again and he said it was an ulcer. He prescribed me prescription-strength Prevacid which worked really well. As the training ramped up for my ironman this year, my stomach started to bother me again. I went back to using Prevacid and was also using Zantac around my meals and it wasn't doing anything. Between my botched Beach2Battleship non-attempt and up until about 2 weeks ago, I was in agony. I was sick every night. I didn't want to eat dinner because I knew I'd be sick. I went to the doctor again and this time I was prescribed Nexium and also was referred to a sports psychologist.

Where the heck is this story leading?

Because of the hole in my stomach, the foods I love to eat are now no-nos. But, I'm having a hard time giving them up. One of my favorites is my homemade spaghetti sauce. Not only is it spicy, but tomatoes are really bad for ulcers since they're acidic. Of course, we had spaghetti for dinner on Saturday night. Not only did I have a headache when I woke up Sunday morning, but my stomach was on fire. And I'm discovering that the quicker I run, the more my stomach bothers me. It's been so frustrating as my body is telling me I can run those 8 min/miles that I want to be running, but my stomach is only letting me run 9:00s. ARGH!

Hopefully with the therapy and the Nexium, I will get back to being the person I want/need to be. For now, I'm dealing.