The last leg

After months of training, the big run is now just 10 days away. Holy crap! And I am so grateful and happy to have had an awesome run last night. I was euphoric after crossing 6k off my training schedule in 32:32 because two weeks I got INJURED. Like I'm some kind of athlete or something.

It was the first night of speed training or farklets. As a newbie I knew this was one area of training I needed help with and so I went to the Running Room's practice run. And they broke me. After an hour and 45 minutes I believe I'd covered nearly 11k (did they not see the 6k John Stanton instructed for that night's training in THE BOOK??) and I was hurt. The evening of running increasing distances at top speed pulled my hamstring. It was serious. More than I knew until I tried to run Saturday and had to walk/run really, really, really slowly. On Sunday I gave up after just four minutes and wanted to cry. I needed to run 20k. What about my training? What about the race? What about all my hard work? I didn't know what to do or how long it would take to heal or what taking a week off from training would mean for my race performance. It was devastating to think one day of training could ruin everything I'd been working towards.

But, I iced. I rested. I cross trained. I came back slowly and easily and last night for the first time I ran without pain or stopping to walk. Plus I did it in a great time AND my hamstring doesn't hurt at all anymore. I am ready.

And so very excited.