Not going as planned

March 14th I ran 11 miles successfully.  According to my plan, I was going to run 13 miles two weeks later on March 28th.  (My training plan is to increase mileage every other week)  The week in between I took it easy. I could definitely feel things tighten up and some soreness after my 11 mile run.  I ran 3 times during that week, 30 - 45 minutes each run.  March 28th came around,  I set my route, rested the day before and felt ready.  That morning getting the girls ready for school took longer than expected, so I started later.  I had a field trip to chaperone, so I decided I would run 11.5 - 12 miles instead of 13 due to my time constraint.

I did a 3:30min run / 30sec walk the entire time.  The weather was perfect, I felt great.  At 40 minutes, I had that feeling, "hum, not sure I am going to make it the whole way."  Then at an hour, my thought turned to, "wow, I will skip the field trip and do the full 13 miles."  Then 1 hour 15 minutes the pain began.  My knees had a deep ache, my hips were hurting, and I could feel my IT band from my hip to the outside of my knee.  I slowed my pace down.  Despite the pain, I was kind of in a zone, had my rhythm down and did not want to stop.  Mentally I was focused on the present moment, energized, and my lungs felt great.  I was not out of breath, if it were not for the joint pain I think I could have run much farther.  But at 1 hour, 51 minutes I stopped.  I definitely was feeling pain from my hips to my knees.

I took Advil for a couple of days, I had a massage the next day, and she really worked on my ITBand, and hips, but the pain continued for almost a week.  I did a couple of short runs and several walks during the next week.  Finally after 10 days, I did an hour run and felt good.  But the pain has me completely freaked out!  I have spent so much time in pain and had to stop running completely for long periods of time, several times in my life.  It brought me back to my real goal - it is more about being able to run every week, and with my girls than the distance I run.

During this time, both girls ran in a little race at their school.  It again reminded me that I want to run with the girls and continue to be a "running" role model for them!

Look at these smiles: (Ryder, my youngest daughter is on the left in the first picture, behind her good friend)

Sierra

I am going to stick with 9 - 11 miles right now for my long runs every other week.  And, take these two smiling faces out on some short runs around the park.