Christmas Eve 2009.... Long Post

This holiday season has been less than stressful for me.  Simply put, we decided that we were only going to do Christmas shopping for our kids.  We set aside a budget.  In November we went out one friday and spent that budgeted amount on the kids presents.  What do ya know, we were done shopping.

The next weekend was Thanksgiving.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went and bought a tree and wrapped all of the presents.  We decorated the tree, placed the presents underneath.  What you ya know, we were done with decorating and wrapping presents as well.

I havn't given a second thought to the holiday hussle and bussle since then.  I am very thankful to not work in retail anymore.  Oh, how that made me hate the holiday season.  That's behind me now.  All I've done this year is sit back and enjoy.   Well, maybe I threw in a lot of running in there too!

A month has gone by and Christmas will be here tomorrow.  In the morning I'll get to watch my sweetheart Shyenne inspect her loot from Santa and open her gifts.  The rest of the day's plans are to eat a lot of food and relax.  Ahhhhh. 

As for running.  I could whine and complain on this one.

I decided on Tuesday, two days after an amazing 16 mile training run for my Half Marathon in 4 weeks.... to run my first Marathon.  I decided that instead of running the Snickers Half Marathon on May 6th, I'm going to bite the bullet and run the FULL MARATHON!  So, I emailed RC about my decision.  I asked for some advise and reassurance that I'm not insane for wanting to do such a thing. 

His answer was simple.  Yes, I could do it.  Although, if I want to do the full marathon in approx. 11 weeks, I would have to commit NOW.  He gave me a few training tips and a long run plan.  As soon as I read the email I was all in.

THEN... wouldn't you know.  Tuesday night's track workout came around.  We got there really early because I got off of work early and I didn't want to drive all the way back to Bryon then come back to Macon.  Amy showed up early so me, Amy, Chuck & Mom did some slow laps to pass the time. I ran about a 2 mile warm up. During the warm up my left ankle and heel was hurting, pretty darn bad.  RC finally showed up and gave us the game plan.  Which sounded super fun.  4 x 400's then a 2 mile "race".  Everyone was to guess their 2 mile time at tempo pace and then run it with no Garmin for pacing help.  There were even prizes involved for the winner who runs their actual time closest to their planned time!  What a cool "speed workout". 

I started running my 400's and immediately my heel and ankle was hurting SO bad that I couldn't hold even an 8:30 pace.  It was just the pain, not my breathing or my legs holding me back.  I did 3 400's and stopped and told Chuck how much pain I was in.  I'm not a baby, I'm pretty hard headed and will stick through a lot of things that hurt.  But this hurt REALLY BAD!

He told me I should really sit out the 2 mile run, that I should hold back now and not hurt anything any worse.  I knew he was right, and against everything in me, I didn't do the race.  I had tears in my eyes watching everyone else participate.  I just DONT like to quit.  I felt like a quitter, even though enough of me knew that I was not running for the right reasons.

I didn't run at all on Wednesday.  I iced/heated/rested/alieved... and used our TENS unit on my heel/ankle area. 

Thursday morning was the Macon Tracks "Christmas Eve Loop Run".  There was plans for everyone to bring treats and we would enjoy hot chocolate after our run. 

I was apprehensive about the pain in my foot.  I decided that I would run 2 to 3 miles out and back, getting around 4 to 6 miles in depending on the pain.  I told Chuck that I WOULD NOT cry and get all bent out of shape if I had to stop and walk. 

At the begining of the run Michelle Archer asked if she could run with me, we were running about a 10:20 pace.  She hasn't been running for about a month and wanted to start back slow.  We were perfect company.  We chatted and ran, slowly.  The pain in my foot kept on nagging.  It wasn't getting any better or worse as we ran.  A few times I stopped and walked with Michelle because her stomach was bothering her.   Walking hurt more than running.  I eventually ran a total of 5.28 miles.  Not bad I guess.  I would have loved to run a tempo run.  But that was out of the question.  My pace ended up being aound 11:00 min miles. 

I talked to RC and he is pretty sure that I developed achilles tendonitis.  I didn't realize that could come on so suddenly.

I'm worried that this is going to seriously interfere with my Marathon training plans.  Although there is no need to worry.  There is nothing I can do to make it disappear.  I can just do the RICE and see what happens.  Hopefully I'll be able to run some quality runs and my long runs soon.  I don't want to miss too much. 

We will see what happens???????????????