Waving the White Flag

Picture from Stubhub.com

It’s so easy to give away advice like it’s growing on an oak tree, but when it comes to advice for myself, my head tends to harden and my ears fold over drowning out any advice that I need to hear.  Well, the good news is that no matter how hard I tried not to hear my advice, the pain in my hamstring was louder.  For the second time in a year I’m pulling out of a marathon.  Last time was because my heart wasn’t in it and now I’m just suffering with this nagging hamstring.  I have to be smart about this, if I lined up for this marathon I would do all I could to get through it and in doing so injure myself more. And with this unsettling weather coming in we won’t even be venturing to DC now.  I wish those still running the marathon the best of luck and I will be crossing my fingers that this storm turns away for you. 

I hope to be healthy enough to lead the first hill workout on Thursday, November 1^st at 6PM meeting at Council Rock South.  Following that workout we will be heading to Chow for our monthly Speedsters happy hour.  We have a lot of activities coming up in the next few weeks:  The return of Hill Workouts on Thursday evenings, Happy Hour, Expo, Expo, Trenton Half Water Stop, and a flag football game/tailgate.  Busy busy.

Till we run into each other again…

Been a Long Time...

It’s been awhile since my last post (hence the Led Zeppelin), it’s actually been a long time since I ran.  That’s because I’ve come down with another injury!  After having a decent summer of racing and training I strained my hamstring.  The first hint of this injury came during a long training run in Tyler Park; I was coming down agony and literally felt agony.  I stopped to stretch the hamstring thinking that it had tightened due to all the marathon training miles.  Well, I was a mile from the boat house (where I was parked) and ended up doing a mix of jogging and walking to get back.  I rested the next few days as a precaution, showed up at the track to do 8 Yasso’s and was only able to do three due to the hamstring pulling again.  I stopped to stretch and tried to continue only to be forced to wave the white flag. 

I took off again, this time for two weeks which was nice when it came to my studies, but not to my fitness, that went to hell along with all my training.  There’s just something about studying and snacks that go hand and hand…I decided last Thursday (exactly two weeks off) that I would attempt an easy flat run.  Though I was able to get through 5 slow extremely tough miles, this was not comforting.  The hamstring nagged me the entire time and for hours after.  It’s so hard to believe that everything can go up in flames faster than it takes to build them, even though I use to tell people that it takes 8 weeks to get in shape and only 8 days to lose it all.  That may not be accurate, but any one that workouts consistently can relate to what I’m saying. 

I’m supposed to be running the Marine Corps Marathon this Sunday, and I have no clue how that’s going to happen.  It’s too late to defer, too late to get the money back for the hotel and I did sprint to class the other day when it was pouring outside and the hamstring didn’t act up…so...I know the smart and proper thing would be to join Allyson on the side lines with the rest of the spectators (oh yeah Allyson’s hurt too similar hamstring injury, are injuries contagious…), this would be the responsible thing to do.  My plan currently is to go for another test run Thursday and see how this one goes before I pull out the lounge chair and claim my spectator spot. 

Till we run (or limp) into each other again…