Early morning

I reeaalllllyyy didn't want to run this morning. I was up a little after 4 to take Scott to the airport. Came back and got some coffee around 5:30 and spent the time between 5:30 and 6 trying to convince myself how fun it was going to be to go for a run. I finally told myself that this is the week the excuses are going to stop. So I laced up my shoes and headed out. I actually felt really good on the run. I had read in a book somewhere that the most important night's sleep is actually not the night before your long run (or race) but the night before that. It might be true because Thursday night I got about 9 1/2 hours of sleep and last night, only about 6 at most.

At least I got 9 miles in this morning. Not the 11 I was shooting for, but still I'm happy with it. I started getting a little achy in my knees and back around mile 7-8 so I decided 9 would be good enough for this week and ended it there.

My IT bands bothered me while I was training for LA marathon (right side much worse than left) and then only thing that really seemed to help was taking 2 weeks off from running and focusing on stretching all the hip muscles. Today's knee annoyance was a little reminder for me to take care of those things before they become a problem.

I know it's a little blurry, but here's a picture of me right after I finished LA marathon. I need to be reminded I can do this again!!

No remnant of the shin splints after I was treated in the clinic with the Graston instruments a few weeks ago.  They had been haunting me since sometime last February or March. Next week when I'm in the clinic I'll take a picture of what the instruments look like.

(Some notes for myself: ate 4 pieces of that Gatorade G1 bar around 4:30 and drank a gatorade before the cup of coffee, which was around 5:45. Then I put a gatorade at the park around mile 2 and had a few sips of that - had to use the bathroom - before continuing on my run. Never made it back to that spot as I had planned to have a drink later on.)  I'm trying to find the best eating/drinking routine to keep my stomach happy while I'm running.

Just so I can put a cutesy picture up, here is a picture of Addy looking out the window.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get motivated to go to the gym for a yoga class. I think that might be a good habit to get into after the long runs.

My apartment looks like a tornado came through it (at least that is a somewhat plausible explanation being in Kansas) and so this weekend I need to spend some time cleaning.  Catching up on my life  is what I really feel like I am doing. Being at school 10-11 hours 5 days a week sure doesn't leave much time for keeping up with my life. Somehow I do find the time to make a mess though. Funny how that works.