back in black - no pain, no pops!

I'm baaaaaaa-aaaaack. ;)

I did my endurance run today (instead of yesterday, because I also have a terrible cold & cough). I ran 6.01 miles!

I took exactly 7 days off to let all of the inflammation go down in my body, and now I am going to do my darndest to be vigilant about taking the right amount of ibuprofen after each run. I found out I was taking too little to affect inflammation of the tissues. I suspect that my connective tissue around the right hip got inflamed and I changed my stride to work around it, which caused the head of the femur to pop in and out. That's NOT happening, and I don't even have a hint of shin splints.

I took the advice of runner, Josh Cheron, (Carrie's awesome bro), and ran slowly, even when I wanted to go faster to get it over with. I stayed at about 5.0 mph after my warm-up, and ran for about 75 minutes to get my 6 miles. I walked about 7 minutes through out total, in one minute increments.

Over the past week I've had lots of time to think, and I realized that I was beating myself up if I didn't run EVERY step of each run. I'm changing that attitude now. This is my first half-marathon, and finishing at any speed will be an accomplishment.

Even though I walked for seven minutes today, I ran for 68 minutes! YAY!

Thanks to Josh and Carrie for inspiration and support. We'll see how my body feels tomorrow. But I feel good now - albeit exhausted from the combination of the run of not sleeping because I was up all night coughing.

I am such a whiner! ;)

But I'm thrilled!