14 and Cruising!

It's been awhile! Sorry about that ... I had a busy weekend and then wasn't feeling great today.

Back to training. Last Friday I was good and didn't do anything active. I was hoping for another successful long run like the week before. I was almost superstitious in how I spent the night before the 14-miler, imitating the same routine from the previous Friday. In the back of my head I couldn't keep from worrying about my ankle and how that might feel for 14 miles. I dug up my hockey gear knowing there had to be some kind of ankle brace or wrap that I could use. Ankle injuries aren't a foreign occurrence for me ... high ankle sprains, regular ankle sprains - you name it, I had it. I even played with a walking cast my junior year at IU during field hockey season. Anyway, my confidence was right on the money ... low and behold, an ankle brace. I threw that on top of my already prepared pile of running stuff for the next morning including my running clothes, shoes, Garmin watch, water bottle belt and the GU. My sister gave me her running belt to use the week before and it came in handy. There are far too many runs where I am dying for water toward the end. There's also a pocket attached, which is nice for my GU.

Waking up to "All I Want To Do" by Sugarland doesn't get me excited as I was hoping it would ... but that's what I got to wake up to at 6:45 last Saturday morning. After rolling around in my bed for a few minutes, I got up, got dressed, brushed my teeth and then armed myself. I feel like I'm going to war with all that stuff I have. Each run I leave my apartment with something new. This time I took my phone just in case I needed to call someone to pick me up if my ankle acted up. I also had a route written out on a little piece of paper. It's a good skeleton and then with my Garmin I can fudge it how I want to. So am I ready to go? Ankle brace ... check. Watch ... check. Water belt ... check. GU ... check. Phone ... check. Directions ... check. Yup - here goes nothing. Just going on another run - like any other run I've walked out the door for.

Other than having to loosen the brace somewhere in that first mile (it's probably good to keep blood circulating), it was an excellent run! I felt very good despite normal aches and pains. It was even a hilly course and that didn't get to me much either. I stopped once around the seven and a half mile mark and did the GU. This time I tried the tri berry GU and actually kind of liked it. That was a first for me (trying the gel GU, that is) but it's just as it sounds, berry-flavored gel. It surprised me how much of it there was though, which kind of grossed me out after awhile. My ankle cooperated more or less. I catered to it during the last four miles when it started to hurt again. I had to be careful pushing off it when running up hills and then when I was running up and down the curbs and in the grass when there wasn't a sidewalk. My finishing pace was a nine minute mile and I'm definitely okay with that.

To make a long story short, I took off Sunday and enjoyed watching the Eagles beat the Panthers in Charlotte. Today I took it easy too as I wasn't feeling up to par. I get pretty bad headaches and I woke up with a screaming one this morning. I attempted the elliptical a little later in the evening. Easy did it. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a seven- to eight-mile run; we'll see how many I feel like doing, or have time to do.

Check out the new week's training schedule on the side bar! :-) Thanks for reading and happy running!!