Pushing through the pain

Another week in the books.  Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as last week.  Last Sunday (March 2nd), I got up early, got bundled up and shoveled snow.  When I came in, I took my boots off and started to go downstairs in my wool socks to wake up one of my boys to get ready for church.  Apparently, my daughter had thrown a bunch of towels from the upstairs bathroom down onto the stairs instead of taking them all the way down to the laundry room.  My first step down was onto a couple of the towels and that was the last step I took.  My feet slipped out from under me and I slid down the stairs on the left side of my body, introducing various body parts to each step on the way down. Other than being scrapped up a bit, I thought I was okay - until Monday morning.  When I woke up Monday morning, I was SORE.  Couple that with my Plantar Fasciitis and whatever has been wrong with my elbow for the last two months, and I was a physical mess.  I didn't run or swim until Thursday night.  I did, however, manage to teach Body Pump both Tuesday afternoon and early Thursday morning albeit with drastically reduced weights.
 I did my run after dropping Brenden off to work at the gym.  I ran from the gym, down North Dodge to Scott Blvd and down Scott to the Budda (or whatever that odd sculpture is) near Rochester and back.  It was a 4.7 mile run.  I felt pretty good although the run back was starting to get a bit icy due to the sun going down.  I ran a slow steady pace and concentrated on proper running form. After my run, I swam 800 yards.  When I got home, I was feeling pretty lousy so I got a sub for my Body Attack for Friday morning.  Not wanting to get too far off my schedule, I knew I needed to get a run in on Saturday as well so Saturday afternoon after teaching Body Pump once again, I ran from the gym down to Scott, to 1st ave., to Rochester, to Scott (past the Budda), and down Scott to North Dodge and the gym.  This was the first time I have run that route although I had mapped it out several years earlier and thought it was 6 miles.  Unfortunately, I was wrong about the distance and it only turned out to be 5.33 miles.  That means that I only ran just over 10 miles last week.  I need to do better this week.

My goal this week is to run 3-4 miles tonight, 4 miles Wednesday night, and run for 80 minutes on Saturday.  I only teach three classes this week so this running schedule ought to be very doable.

I am still Mt. Dew free and am continuing to try to eat a more natural diet but I am not losing any weight yet.  Actually, I gained a pound over the last two weeks.  That is frustrating but I just have to keep reminding myself to take the long view and be patient.

The weather is finally starting to look good.  We are supposed to top 50 degrees today. Perfect running weather.