Another Setback

82 Days to Portland
180 Days to Houston

I've had another setback. Last week I thought I was having another kidney stone attack. I had one last year and this one felt very similar. I spent most of the week on pain medications and NOT RUNNING! Not what I needed after a week of dealing with a heal injury.

Friday I was starting to feel a little bit better--I could ignore the pain for short periods of time--and decided to try my four mile run that was scheduled for that day. I drove to the gym so that I would have witnesses if I were to pass out from pain or something else requiring assistance.  I made it through the run without any trouble. 

When Sunday came around I woke up really early (4:30) and went a local park for a twelve mile LSR.  I started running before dawn.  I even had to wear my geeky headlamp! It took me a long time to finish the run because, well, for several reasons.  Reason number one:  it was really hot.  I took it slow and made sure I took walk breaks to keep hydrated and cool down a bit.  Reason two: my back started hurting again about mile eight.  I wanted to finish and I did, but pain really slowed me down.  Reason three:  I saw three bunnies and three snakes.  Bunnies are cool and I didn't want to miss seeing one and snakes are definitely NOT cool and I didn't want to miss seeing one. 

One cool thing about finishing this run is that it bumped me up to another level in the Nike+ program.  I've now completed enough miles to be a blue level runner.  I only had to run 621 total miles to do that. 

One of the things I learned about running in the heat is that I really needed to invest in some running underwear. I know you probably didn't want to know that, but at the end of a hot run it feels like you are wearing a soggy diaper.  I knew it was time to invest in something that wicks sweat away.  I went to my favorite running store and bought two ridiculously expensive pair of underwear.  I haven't had a chance to use them yet. I hope they are worth the money (as I obviously can't return them). 

This coming weekend is my first scheduled LSR at a distance longer than a half marathon--14 miles.  I hope I'm able to complete the "junk miles" scheduled this week to prepare me for it.