What doesn't kill you....

Come closer. Closer. I'm sick of winter. I EFFING HATE WINTER!!!

Today I did something that maybe wasn't an advisable training decision. I ran a 20 miler on the treadmill. But, let's start from the beginning.

At the end of last week I had a 20 miler looming. As I've mentioned before, it takes a lot of motivation to get myself up for training run of that distance by myself. The run was assigned to Sunday and had I had the legs for it, I should have done it on Saturday. It was beautiful on Saturday. Sunday when I woke up the weather wasn't as nice and because I procrastinated I didn't do the run because I would be finishing in freezing rain. I thought Monday (yesterday) might be a better day to run because it was supposed to be warmer, but it wasn't and it was pouring rain until later in the day when it because to rain ice, ALL DAGGONE NIGHT!! Today when I woke up I was ready. I mean, really ready. Dave called me on his way to work and told me the roads were ice rinks so I made a decision. I would do this run on the treadmill.

Things didn't start well, though. I'm carrying my three water bottles, my nutrition, and cell phone to the basement and because my arms were so full I couldn't turn on a light. The windows would provide enough light until I could put everything down. But, just two steps down, I slipped and everything went flying including myself. I landed hard on my backside, aggravating a tailbone injury I got playing basketball in high school. (Yes, this 5'1" beast played basketball.) I shook it off and decided to proceed with the run.

The first thirty minutes were rusty. I felt off and wondered if I should just do the 50 minute run I had assigned for this week. But then I got comfortable and stopped worrying about the distance and just worry about when to drink and when to eat. I made a game plan for the run, which was a little different than what coach gave me. The plan was to vary things every 5 miles making the workout a descending run. I have this theory that you run faster outside then you do inside with the same effort level, so I didn't worry about how "slow" I was going. The first 5 miles would be at 10:00 pace, miles 6-10 would be at 9:30, miles 11-15 would be at 9:00, and the last five miles would be at 8:30.

The first five miles were good. I was feeling relaxed. I was getting into the run. I could definitely make it more miles. Then around the seven mile mark my tailbone was really starting to bother me. Maybe that fall was worse than I thought. I hopped off the treadmill around 7-1/2 miles, took a bathroom break, popped two Advil, and rubbed some Ben Gay on my buns. I started again and things felt much better.

The miles started to tick off. Ten miles, twelve miles. Finally I made it to fifteen and it was time to turn the speed up one last time. My legs and lungs felt great, my tailbone was holding up. Sixteen miles. Last nutrition taken. Seventeen miles. Eighteen miles. I couldn't believe how good I was feeling. Nineteen miles. I'm now beyond three hours on the treadmill. And finally, 20 miles. I couldn't help but take a picture of it. I couldn't believe I actually made it.





I walked for ten minutes, took an ice bath and then a shower, and then things went badly. I had done some serious damage to myself when I fell down the stairs before the run. Things got so tight and painful that I couldn't bend over to put my socks on. I couldn't bend over to pick up my dog and put her on the leash. I could barely stand up from the couch or the toilet. I have iced all afternoon. I have mulled over going to the doctor or urgent care. My mom even offered to come over and help me until Dave got home. It's been a rough afternoon. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be feeling a lot better and can return to training.

For now, I'm pretty excited that (1) I did a 20 miler on a treadmill, (2) I did the run really well and (3) I did the run despite the fall. Now for that pain in the ass....