Race Weekend

Alright people, its time.

Grading is done. Homework is done (until Friday after next, I think!). Plans are made. My bag is packed. My legs are (really) rested. My friends and family are all behind me, and I don't plan on letting anybody down. Lets do this thing!

Last night I was talking to my dad, and he surprised me by asking where do get materials to make signs for the race. This caught me completely off guard; my dad is mostly the type to stand by and clap and offer some words of encouragement, so this is huge! I think he's getting pretty excited about the race too! Which in turn does the very, very dangerous thing of feeding MY excitement!

This past week or so I've been swinging through excitement, fear, confidence, nervousness, pride (of my sister, she's come a long ways!), happiness, doubt; you name it, I've been there! The past few days I've been mastering the negative thoughts, and nothing but positive thoughts are going through my head; mentally, I'm ready to rock!

My hip is feeling perfect today, even walking up hills, and running across the street. Nothing is bothering it at all! And let me tell you, when I'm darting across the street -- I feel like I'm floating. My legs just do their thing and I go. Its the exact feeling I'm looking for during the first part of the race on Sunday; effortlessly floating along at 6:50 pace. I'm being realistic, though, and the effortless part is not going to last the whole race, but if it lasts the first half I'll be plenty happy! Physically, I'm ready to rock!

The last few days I've been really strict on my diet. Everything that goes into my body is fuel for the race, and thats the way I have to look at it. I think the only processed food that has gone into me since Tuesday has been the chocolate syrup in my chocolate milk. I've been having rice, pasta, cottage cheese, chocolate milk, OJ, fruit smoothies, clif bars, bananas, grapes, and apples. I guess the peanut butter and jelly I have for breakfast is probably the least healthy part of my diet this week, which isn't doing too bad! Dietarily (Shh, I can make up words if I want to), I'm ready to rock!

As I've said before, this has been one crazy year of training. I've fought with problems from my ankles up to my hip, ran through wind chills of -20 and heat indexes of 100. There have been runs with friends, runs against some pretty tough competition. In the process, I've set 3-4 PR's in the 5k, and one in the 15k! I think I even set a half marathon PR in training, but I don't count it if its not a race! In a few days, all my hard miles pay off even more than they already have.

Thanks again for all the support, you guys and gals are the best! Be ready for a race report in a couple of days!

Its go time!

Ready for Take-off

I'm ready for the weekend; everything is in line. Remember that list yesterday? Its all ready except for my sunglasses, which I plan to wear. Plans are set for Friday evening and Saturday. I've gone over the race day plans with my family; thanks to Tom for some extra spectator tips!

All I have left to do until the race is take care of myself: eat good, don't get hit by a car, and don't piss off anybody who is bigger than me.

I decided against a run today. My hip is feeling good, but I'm not feeling as antsy as yesterday so I decided to take the day off -- don't want to do any unneeded damage this close to the big day! A few miles isn't going to benefit me at all right now.

As you might be able to tell, I'm mellowing out a little bit. The overwhelming excitement is temporarily taking a backseat; its still there, I can feel it, but I beat it back for the evening so I can get a little grading done.

Believe you me, it will be back in full swing tomorrow! I have class at 8, then several hours to get everything together, office hours from 1-2, class 2-3, then I leave for the airport! This weekend is going to be great, getting to see family (including my Uncle Bill, who I haven't seen for ages), friends, runners from the blogging community, and runners from Nike+. Even if I wasn't running the race, this would be a great weekend; but its because of the race everything is coming together; I love it! (Okay, so maybe I'm not mellowing out, I went crazy with the exclamation points there! (crap, again))

Thanks to everyone who has helped with encouraging words and advice, I really appreciate it! The support really helps out, especially when suffering through injury. You guys rock!

Expect one last post tomorrow before I head out, then you'll get a break from me for a few days!

Revved! Up!

The story of my week. Massive amounts of pent up energy and nothing to do with it; and I shouldn't be doing anything with it! I had a pretty restless night last night because of it, trying to figure out little details and how it will all work out. I can sleep in tomorrow as late as I want, though, so no harm done!

I ran today. I ran good. My hip ran good too. It hasn't hurt all day, and it felt great during my run. As per usual, we'll wait for the run to 'set in' tonight to see if I should actually be excited. But I'm excited enough that it recovered with just one day off, rather than the six it took last week. Progress!

My confidence is through the roof right now. Being the smart guy that I am, I set up the pace alert on my Garmin to yell at me to slow down whenever I ran too quick. It went off a lot. I would get into the run, then get beeped at and slow down, then get into it.. beep, slow down. But all in all it did keep me from running too fast during my run; Garmin saves the day! Every time I space out, my speed would go right to the low 6:50's. Thats race pace. And it feels good. Oh so good.

Besides actually running, I've been working on a list of what to pack today. Its a lot longer than I first anticipated, and I need to go to walmart to get some smaller containers so I can actually shower after the race. I think the other passengers on the plane would greatly appreciate it! I'm going to share my list of stuff to pack for two reasons: you guys can remind me of anything I'm forgetting, and anybody racing this weekend can see if they're forgetting anything important that I listed! Here it is:

Running Shorts
Running Shirt
Running Shoes
Running Socks
Gu x5 (1 before, 3-4 during)
Sunglasses
Clothes for Saturday
Clothes for Sunday after the race
Aleve
Something to sleep in
Stuff to grade (blarg)
iPod for the plane ride there
Camera
Garmin
Throw-away hoody just in case its chilly (unlikely!)
Clif bars + fruit (so I don't eat like crap on Friday)
Bathroom stuff (in < 3oz containers)
Safety Pin (attach Gu's to shorts pocket)
Cell Phone
Cell Phone Charger
Garmin Charger
Confirmation Ticket for Expo
Flight confirmation
Map to Louisville Airport

I know I have to be forgetting something, regardless of the list being so long!

Tomorrow I may run 2-3 miles at an extremely easy pace, if my hip is feeling rock solid. It will help me build up more confidence; as if I need it!

My flight leaves in 48 hours. I'm more excited than ever! Its time to rock, people. We have a 26.2 mile celebration to attend!

Getting Antsy

You know the way little kids start jumping around when they are in the vicinity of candy? Yeah. Thats me. Except instead of candy, you have a marathon. And instead of jumping around... no, you still have jumping around. But nobody has caught me -- yet.

I woke up today and my hip was feeling pretty okay. It wasn't perfect, but the usual pain wasn't there. It shifted a little bit and felt like it was in the muscles, so I stretched and it mostly went away. I walked to class, and when class let out it felt wonderful. I took the elevator upstairs to make some copies of stuff and was bouncing up and down with energy. I couldn't help it. I just have to act like a civilized human being that isn't running a marathon in SIX DAYS when people are around.

I'll admit to running today, too. I went out for an easy couple miles after class. I couldn't help it -- full of energy, hip feeling good, and it was raining on my walk back. It was the rain that forced me to go out and run. But, my streak continues. Whenever it looks like it might possibly rain, or IS raining, it will stop when I put on my running shoes. Maybe Chicago will be different; there is a chance of rain in the forecast. If it doesn't, though, the other 45,000 normal runners who hate rain can thank me.

So, how is my hip feeling you ask? Well, pretty good. It feels about how it felt yesterday. I'm keeping it stretched and that makes it feel pretty good. The discomfort that is there is still feeling more in the muscles than right on the hip joint -- much more tolerable! I noticed today too that I have a really tender spot on my waist about 3 inches above the hip joint (where it usually hurts). I'm starting to massage it, hoping the two are related.

The rest of me felt amazing during this run. Absolutely perfect -- as it should since I'm completely healed up right now. I didn't watch my Garmin too much during this run, I just ran how I felt and tried to "keep it slow." I didn't do a very good job at keeping it slow. I won't go into the details, but I might have, sorta, accidentally, ticked off a mile at race pace when trying to keep it slow. It only builds my confidence. Watch out!

As long as my hip keeps feeling good this evening, its just going to keep going through the roof. I'm getting more pumped up every day, and its getting to dangerous levels!

I also want to mention that my friend Lewis rocks. I asked him to take me in Friday night so I had somewhere to sleep, and he's offering to help out in every possible way on Saturday! Also, he's a great guy to have on the side lines as one of my cheerleaders, since he was the school mascot where I got my undergrad. He's one high energy guy!

Everything is falling into place. I'm ready to rock.

But for now, I have to proctor an exam. Its in a huge auditorium, and if I catch any of these kids trying to cheat, maybe God will show a little mercy -- but thats the only place they're going to find any!


Update: After pacing around up and down stairs proctoring the exam, my hip is feeling a little off. Time for the usual prescription of ice and taking it easy! I'm planning to run again on Wednesday, then taking it easy until race day. I also have a go ahead to start taking the medicine again that knocked my hip into line a week or so ago, starting Thursday.

Race Ready

Gu: Check
Legs: (One.. two) Check
Shoes: Check
Shorts: Check
Shirt: Check (Really bright, easy to see!)
Feet: (One.. two..thr.. no, two) Check
Haircut: Check (You call it short, I call it aerodynamic)
Socks: Check
Somewhere to sleep: Check
Loads of pasta and rice: Check

I'm ready to go. Lets do this thing. My hip is feeling great again, back to normal great. But I'm erring on the side of caution. Tuesday is my hip's debut with an easy couple miles. If it goes 110% perfect I'm going to go for a run on Thursday with one or two miles at race pace just to remember what it feels like. All the details are worked out. I just need to eat a ton of carbs this week to push that wall back as far as possible on Sunday!

Today I jumped on the exercise bike for an hour. I had to prove I still have some mental toughness left in me, so I hit it about as hard as I could for that hour. Heres the heart rate over that hour. No breaks, just a whole lot of pedaling! I went and got a haircut today too, and picked up a shirt for the race. I'll run in it beforehand to make sure it doesn't bother me, don't worry! I know I'm not supposed to try out something new on race day, but I never train with a shirt on, and its going to be a little chilly at the start; so regardless, whatever I wear will be new.

Me and my sis are both decorating our shirts before the race too, with "TEAM CICHON" and the phonetic spelling too! My name will be on the front too, so if you're there, look for the guy in a tennis ball colored tank top that says "DOUG" on the front and "GO TEAM CICHON" on the back!

The weather next weekend is supposed to be great! I know most public weather forecasting sites don't have it posted yet, but I have a friend studying meteorology so here's the inside scoop! At the start of the race we're looking at mid 50's, and towards the end mid to high 60's. There is a small chance of rain too, he claims about a 30% chance. These are absolutely perfect conditions to run. Lets do it!

I'm getting really, really revved up just talking about it (in case you couldn't tell by me ending more sentences with exclamation points than periods)! I may explode by the end of the week! Luckily I have most of my homework out of the way so I don't need to really concentrate on anything, because concentration just isn't happening until Sunday is over.

Be prepared for more of me being way too excited this week, and feel sorry for any non-runner that asks me about my plans this weekend!

Fun with Numbers!

I bet most of you haven't heard that since grade school math class! Except this time, its for real. Really. Honest. Loads of fun!

The Chicago Marathon is estimated to have 1,500,000 spectators this year. The average person thinks "gee willickers, thats a big number mister!" but lets put it into a number we understand! If we divide that by 26.2 miles, we get 57,251 spectators per mile. Now, divide that by 5280 feet (the number of feet in a mile). You get about 11. That means, on average, there are 11 people per foot of the marathon. I think that number is much easier to understand!

Time for more fun! If you travel from Chicago, through my home town, by my old dorm at Eastern Illinois, past my apartment in Lexington, and to Boston, its 1,440 miles. So far this year, I've run 1,414 miles. Add a marathon onto that and you're sitting at 1,440. Quite the journey from Chicago to Boston, but I don't think its a coincidence!

Also, just to make Jess a little more nervous: only EIGHT more days until Chicago! I don't have anything fancy to do with the number eight, but its a small number!


Regardless of the fact I've barely been able to run the past few weeks, I'm staying positive about the race. Every time I've run, my hip has felt great during the run. Its afterwards that is always the part that is bad. And everything is supposed to hurt after a marathon anyways, right?

No worries, though, I'm not being stupid. In fact I'm erring on the side of caution more than ever this week. I was really looking forward to a run today, but decided not to just because it doesn't feel perfect. I jumped on the exercise bike yet again. I'll probably do the same tomorrow and try running once or twice next week. I also have the go ahead to take the medicine that makes my hip feel better for a day or two before the race, although its not safe to take it long term so I'm on a break from it right now.

Also, every time I've gotten out to run recently, I don't feel like I've lost much fitness at all. I feel about the same as I did a few weeks ago when I run, despite the fact my legs feel weak compared to how they felt before when I'm not running. As long as they can carry me when I'm running, I could care less how they feel when I'm not!

When the race comes around, I'm planning to forget I've taken these weeks off. Wipe it from my mind! It will help enormously with my confidence, which is what I need most right now. I've lost very little physically these past few weeks; most of what I have lost is in terms of 'mental toughness'.

Back to work for me! I'm making a dent in my huge pile of stuff. The big projects are out of the way, and the load on my back is getting lighter!

-Doug

Nine days

We're down to single digits people. Nine days until Chicago! Thats right, nine days until I try to run more miles in 3 hours than I've ran in the past 3 weeks. Does that make me nervous? Um, yeah. Just a little. Okay, I'll be honest: I feel a little like the average person would giving a speech to 1000+ people, naked.

I'm doing my best to stay on top of everything. Stretching and icing are happening several times a day, and I just got done on the bike. I only went 10 miles on the bike since I'm tapering. Generally I feel like I still have the fitness I had 3 weeks ago. My run on Tuesday didn't feel any harder, nor does biking. Its just that running currently tears apart my hip.

Homework is keeping me crazy busy, which is keeping me from worrying too much about the race. I'm looking at today through Sunday as having about 48 hours to work on everything (8 hours sleep, 16 hours work per day) and feel like that should help me at least make a dent in everything.

Yesterday was really productive; I got my big assignment done for today (16 pages typed) and a good start on my project for Graphics due next Friday. I still have loads of grading for Monday, Graphics homework due Tuesday, and Algorithms due on Wednesday.

All this means I need to stop typing and get to work. I hope everybody's running is going well.

I almost forgot! Make sure you go check out Amy and Tom's runner's lounge; its a great way to meet other runners, they've really put together a great website!

-Doug

Going Crazy!

My hip is feeling better today, but I promised myself no running until Saturday. Honest. None. Okay, fine, I admit it: I ran across the street on my way to class. Today it is almost like the deity of running is torturing me. The one day I decide no running, is the one day it rains. Running in the rain is one of my favorite times to run. I haven't been able to run in the rain for months.

I'm mostly taking care of my hip. The medicine I was on to heal it up is done with, so I feel like I need to be extra careful now. I'm stretching and icing as frequently as I remember to. I could probably do it more often, but with the amount of homework I have right now it keeps slipping my mind.

I plan not to have free time for about four weeks or so, except for marathon weekend when I refuse to do anything for school, except maybe some grading on the plane. Loads of stuff due in the next week or so, then mid terms are going to slap me in the face.

I'm attempting to stay in good spirits. I really appreciate all the encouraging comments you guys are leaving! Thanks! Hopefully I'll be more up beat in a couple of days.

-Doug

Roller Coaster Ride

This post has the opposite tone of yesterdays. Welcome to the roller coaster that is my life.

After my run yesterday, I felt great. Hours later, though, my hip started hurting again. Nothing bad, but present. Today is more of the same. It isn't really painful, but there is discomfort. Running on it will just do damage.

Yesterday I was pumped up that I was ready to go. Today I'm back in a hole just hoping I can run a few times before the race. I was looking forward to my run today, and until 10 minutes ago had every intention to go out for a few miles. But a few miles isn't going to give me much benefit at all, especially if its tearing my hip apart.

I'm taking today completely off. No running. No exercise bike. Just me and my homework.

Blah.

Twelve Days

...until the big day! I'm revved up, I'm ready to go. I just finished a really great workout with the 5:30am group. My hip is solid again. I can tell I lost some fitness, but not much. It could all be in my head. During the two mile hilly part of the run where we run quick, I was averaging about 6:15/mile and my heart rate was about 184 bpm on average. At the very end of the run one of the guys, Duane, who is about 20 years older than me, decided to give me a run for my money. Lets just say he was surprised to find out about the last few gears I had waiting for him!

It was really great to be back out and running with the group, especially since I hadn't seen them for about two weeks. A lot of people were asking about where I'd been, and seem glad that I recovered and am back on my feet.

My original plan, before my hip injury, was to start my taper after this workout. I'm sticking to this plan, because today definitely wasn't a workout that would be part of a taper; far from it. The taper begins now. Be ready to hear about my taper madness. Backing off because of an injury is one thing. But when I know I'm perfectly capable of running, and can't, things can get messy. This is a warning. Take heed!

The plan from here on out is to go easy on Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday I'm planning 8-10 miles at marathon race pace (6:52/mile) just to confirm what it feels like and burn off a little bit of anxiety I have building up before the final week of my taper. Next week I want to run 15 miles during the week. This will probably be 6, 5, and 4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday respectively. On Saturday I may run a mile or two at a very easy pace just to burn off some nervous energy. If you are going to be in Chicago for the race that weekend, let me know if you'd be up for joining me for a mile or two on Saturday!

After that, well. We get to see what I'm made of. We get to see what my sister is made of. And Susan. And Nic. And Jess. And Tom. And the other 44,994 runners I didn't mention.

Happy running,

-Doug

Quick Weekend

This weekend flew by so much quicker than I imagined! I got home around 10 or 11PM Friday, and left Sunday afternoon around 1PM. Talk about a short trip considering it was a 400+ mile drive!

I already told you guys about the race, but I never posted any pictures! I brought my camera to the race and somehow broke it so the display didn't work anymore, but fixed it Sunday morning. "But Doug, how did you fix the camera?" you ask. I fixed it the only way I know how to fix a camera, I punched it in the face! And by punched it in the face, I mean I smacked it a few times out of frustration, and it decided it better listen to me. Hey, I'll take it! Here are some pictures from the race:


The pavillion, finish line, and start line around 7am.

Ready, set, GO!

My setup for timing (those slow pokes, Prefontaine would have finished by now!)



Woof!



I was smiling the whole way back to Kentucky (okay, maybe not) until....



Traffic!

Okay, thats all for the pictures, I think!

Yesterday I put in another 4 miles. I could definitely feel a little pain in my hip, but it was minor and not getting worse! Afterwards it felt fine after stretching and icing it. Today, it feels great! And I haven't even had any Aleve, imagine that! The only thing that stinks is that I'm just getting off this break, so I'm ready to rock, but.... its taper time! Ideally I would like to put in 30-35 miles this week, then some minimal amount next week, maybe 15-20.

Judging my fitness after my break, I still think going under 3 hours is attainable (sorry, Nic). Whenever I stopped paying attention on my run yesterday my pace would slowly creep under 7 minutes. I guess I was doing something right on that bike! I am not going to shoot for 2:50 at Chicago anymore, not this time. Maybe at Boston!

I'm really pumped to have a functional hip again, I can't really explain it; use your imagination!

I hope everybody had a great weekend!

Happy running,

-Doug

Hanging on for all its worth!

As I recently pointed out, I've had one insane year of training. And I'm not about to let it all slip away!

This morning Amy had a wonderful post about how important it is to apply our training stubbornness not only to our running, but also to our recovery process. No letting up, do everything possible to get ourselves back in working order! And thats exactly what I'm doing.

I'm not sure if it was Amy's post, the fact it was likely (hopefully, please?) my last day on the exercise bike, or an unrelated burst of motivation, but I tore it up on that exercise bike this morning. Over the past week or two I've gotten much better at getting my heart rate up and keeping it there, even when I'm biking. Since I'm able to get my heart going, the cardiovascular benefit should definitely help sustain my running.

I've put in too much hard work to let it just slip away because of my hip. I'm holding on for all its worth; and its worth a lot to me!

Tomorrow is a rest day, then on Saturday I have my second run in eleven days. Eleven days! I can't believe I'm still sane. After my run in with some dishonest people the other day, I've been pretty put off by the level of cheating which seems to only occur within a certain group of people at my school. I've also been determined to get the guilty ones brought forward for what they're doing. A friend of mine jokingly told me: "You suddenly went from being a normal and happy person when you ran regularly, to not running at all this week and hating an entire race of people." Don't worry, I don't actually hate anybody. Nor am I racist, far from it. I just have a strong dislike for those trying to take the easy way out in life.

Here's to running in 48 hours!

And here's my workout details:

Time: 60 minutes
Distance: 24.25 miles
Avg Heart Rate: 158 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 175 bpm

No Running: Day 4 of 6

Its my fourth day in a row that I haven't run; man do I miss it. The one week I can't run is the week when its 60 degrees in the morning and sunny with a light breeze. Its absolutely perfect every day this week, and other runners are out enjoying it. Every day on the way to class I see people running, a lot more than usual too.

My hip hasn't hurt at all the past two days; although it isn't perfect. There has been no pain, but it doesn't feel like my other hip. I don't know how to explain it really, so I'm not going to try. However, the lack of pain is much like Saturday morning, and I'm going to give it a few more days regardless. It simply isn't worth the risk of having to take yet another week off with Chicago only a few weeks away!

Last night I called home, and my dad haphazardly asked me if I'm eating okay down here. Ironically, he asked this at a time where my diet has been one of my top priorities! I don't think my response of all the healthy food I've been eating was expected at all!

I just got done on the exercise bike. Only one more day of biking and I should be back. Right now the plan is to go for a test run on Saturday afternoon. Probably around 2-3 miles. If my hip hurts afterwards then we know I will need the steroid injection, and precisely where to get it since it will bring out the sore spot. So my friend Jim is wrong when he said I just wanted the injection "to get an edge during Tuesday morning push ups!" The one downside to getting it is that it will make it sore for a few days, but should heal after that. Because of this, I can't get it as just a 'good luck' sort of thing.

Workout details:

Distance: 14.25 miles
Time: 40 minutes
Avg Heart Rate: 148
Max Heart Rate: 155


-Doug

Temptation

temptation
noun
1.	something that seduces or has the quality to seduce
2.	the desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid; "he felt the temptation and his will power weakened"
3.	the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire

I woke up today feeling great. Especially my hip; even better than it did on Saturday morning, and I wasn't all drugged up on Tylenol or Aleve! I put on my shorts, shoes, and Detroit Marathon technical shirt. It was a wonderful 60 degrees outside. I had my heart rate monitor and Garmin on. iPod in one hand, water bottle in the other. Everything seemed so perfect.

I went down the stairs, but I couldn't hit the roads. Not today, not this week. This week is to let my hip heal no matter how good it feels; no matter how tempted I am to just put in a few miles. I had to go grind it out on the exercise bike again.

When I got to the exercise room, someone was on the bike (he was probably going about 30 RPM's and had the resistance set on level 1, but I won't go off about that right now!). This made it all the more tempting to just go run. After asking him how much he had left in his 'workout' I went back up to my room for 15 minutes, and came back down the stairs. Again I had to make the decision not to run, even though everything was absolutely perfect for a run. Sixty degrees, light breeze, sunny...

Resisting temptation again, I got on the bike. But after being tempted by a real workout three times already, I wasn't content to just pedal for an hour; today was one good workout! I revved it up to level 12 resistance (out of how many, who knows), and started pumping. Most of the time I was going about 100-105 rpm's, except for my 10 minutes easy in the middle, and 5 minutes at the end.

I feel like I got a great workout in, but not nearly as good as if I had gone out and run today. I'm really starting to miss the feeling of a great run; its been over a week since I really got a good run in.

Workout details:

Time: 1 hour
Distance: 23.25 miles
Avg. Heart Rate: 153
Max Heart Rate: 172

Never Will I Break

I woke up today and my hip was feeling fairly good. Definitely not perfect, but not horrible either. I spent 90 minutes on the exercise bike, as promised. I mostly just spaced out for the majority of the time listening to music, but one song stuck out to me: Three Doors Down -- Never Will I Break. Part of the chorus is "At least a million times have I fallen, but never will I break," and it really stuck with me!

I did a little thinking during the ride too, about how I might do things with my racing once my hip is back in working order. Maybe I'm setting myself up for a let down, but I'm continuing to be optimistic. Regardless, with a four week taper I obviously won't be in the best shape to race come October 7th. I will lose a little bit of my fitness this month no matter how many miles I put in on that exercise bike.

The idea I'm currently flirting with is to run fairly easy at Chicago. I'm thinking run 20 minutes slower than originally planned, to put me in range to qualify for Boston. This way, even if I have some lingering injuries after the race my plans won't be shot for the spring. After Chicago, I'm looking at recovering for a week, having one hard week of training, then a two week taper and running Marshall University Marathon on November 4th, and here I would go for my 2:50 marathon.

A lot has to go just right for this plan to happen, and I realize this. I need to get this hip functional in the next week or so, but I'm staying optimistic about it. I also need to make it through Chicago injury free, which could be iffy since my 24 mile run sidelined me for a short period. However, I have narrowed down the cause of my injury to my new shoes and a weak core. Hopefully by fixing the causes, the effect won't come back!

I hope everybody else has had a more exciting weekend than me (grading and doing homework)!

-Doug

Taper Time

Some of you may have read a post I had up here for an hour or two. I decided to delete it because moping around isn't my style.

I've decided my taper started last week. Running 20 miles next weekend is out of the question, so I'm looking at a four week taper now. Things can't always go as planned. I have 22 days to heal up to make it to the start line of Chicago, otherwise I won't make it to the finish.

Given the tone of this, you may have guessed my hip isn't doing too hot. You may have guessed right. I've been taking care of it all day and it still hurts, and I know running on it was a stupid thing to do; regardless of it feeling great before and during the run.

After finishing my grading for the day, I started looking at what the diagnosis could be. I don't think its tendinitis anymore; the two culprits are bursitis and inflamed fascia. Luckily, both of them have very similar treatments. Ice and drugs. One of them even has a quick fix which I'm going to look into next weekend. Bursitis can be healed very quickly with a steroid injection into the hip. It breaks things up and makes the hip happy again; so I'm hoping that will help! My dad (a doctor) is going to hook me up when I go home next weekend.

I'm going to switch my anti-inflammatory of choice from Tylenol to Aleve per my dad's suggestion. He told me to "blast it with two in the morning and two in the evening every day," and I think I will start doing just that! Update: I took some Aleve and its really doing the trick, I should have taken your advice a week ago, SLB! On top of that I need to keep icing and stretching it, but most importantly, I need to not run on it.

At this point I've done my moping and thats no fun, so now all my energy is going towards getting to the starting line.

By having this extended taper, I believe running a 2:50 will be out of the question. Pending on a whole slew of factors, my new goal will be either 3:00 or 3:10. Maybe I'll end up running with Nic, who knows. If running under 3 hours is going to jeopardize my running after the race, it can wait until later!

I'm determined to stay in good spirits despite this set back, sitting around feeling sorry for myself won't get me anywhere! I want to follow SLB's lead and stay on top of my recovery until I'm back on the road!