racewalking!

I racewalked this morning - only 3.3km, but I had no pain afterward! I stopped at 3.3km because I was noticing my leg - it didn't hurt, but I was noticing it. I wanted to be cautious, so I walked home slowly, about 0.7km.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and walk a little longer with Kelly, leg permitting.

improving

I'm gradually improving.

Sunday I did the elliptical for 37 minutes and the treadmill for 3 minutes. It felt OK - well, as OK as the treadmill ever feels. I got off and did a lap around the ice rink and that felt better.

Monday was 52 min on the elliptical, some glute exercises, and watching Kelly do speed work.

Today I did 40 min elliptical.

I worked Monday & today, which always entails a good amount of walking. The leg feels fine, and so coach is giving me the OK to try a walk tomorrow of 5-6km. I had asked to try a walk Monday, but he said no - thought I needed a couple more days to rest to be cautious. This injury is potentially more serious if I make it worse, so it's a good idea to be careful.

We'll find out tomorrow how it goes.

a little better

My leg feels better today. Is it because of the new anti-inflammatory, or because I didn't go to work today and rested more, or ??? who knows? But I'm glad!

I went to the gym and did 30 min elliptical, at which point it was a touch sore (but just a little), so I then did the bike for 30 min. It felt totally fine when I left the gym, and still feels good tonight. So much nicer than yesterday, when I was limping at the end of the day. That was no fun.

***

My mood has vacillated from depressed, to coping with things OK, to task mode (lots to do w/kids...so not much time to think sometimes, which is better). This morning I was in depressed mode and was sure I'd never racewalk again (not really, but you know how you tell yourself stupid stuff?), but tonight I'm doing all right.

pain continues

Yesterday I did the elliptical for a bit, but then my leg started to hurt so I switched to the bike.

Today I got smart and just started on the bike, which seems safer at the moment. I only got in 30 minutes but that's better than nothing...and in retrospect that was enough. My leg is really bothering me today just doing my daily walking. Of course, my work entails quite a bit of walking some days, and today was one of those days. I've iced it once and got my prescription anti-inflammatory a few minutes ago and hopefully that will help.

:( sad Tammy :(

Doctor visit

Well...about what I expected. The doctor (who is very good) said I do indeed have posterior tibialis tendonitis. She gave me a prescription for a stronger anti-inflammatory and also for physical therapy at the running clinic, where they will do various treatments to try and "calm it down" as well as analyze my gait for clues as to the cause, etc. The only problem is that the running clinic has no openings until February 6th. So...helpful, and not helpful.

***

This morning: woke up a bit late but still got in 30 min (3.7 miles) on the elliptical. My leg is still sore and grumpy from Monday's 2 miles. That's pathetic :(. I'm not feeling optimistic about a speedy recovery. I think my chances for qualifying for nationals are rapidly going away. Still hoping against hope that is not true, but trying to temper it with some realism.

a little better

Yesterday I took a rest day.

***

Today my leg was feeling pretty good, so I tested it out with a racewalk. I went to Liberty Park, where it was a toasty warm 10F (-12.2C). Despite the cold, it felt SO good to racewalk again. I felt terrific, and was able to go pretty fast. My leg didn't hurt very much, but this injury seems a bit pernicious in that it doesn't start to hurt the worst until after I'm done. About 1km in, it did ache a little, and by 2.5-3km it was a bit more bothersome. I stopped briefly to roll my foot around, and it definitely was fairly sore, so I headed back to the car and stopped at 3.4km. I really didn't want to stop but knew it would be the smartest thing not to overdo it; I'd had in my mind to do 5km but that wasn't to be.

I iced it and used the TENS machine, and though I'm at work and walking a bit more than I did on the weekend, it's not too bad now. It's definitely a bit more sore than yesterday when I didn't do anything, but it's not too awful. After I leave work I'm going to use the elliptical for a while to get some more exercise. The scale has been most unkind with my reduced level of activity, so it's time to crack down more seriously now.

Total 3.41 km in 19:36 for 5:45/km with ave HR 146. I really did feel great, until I had to stop...sigh......

Garmin data here.

cross-training

Yesterday I went to the gym and did about 40 minutes of cardio - bike, elliptical, rowing machine. The rowing machine doesn't hurt at all, except that my muscles are most unused to it, so about 10 minutes is all I can do at a time for now. I can build up if necessary.

The bike and elliptical hurt a bit less yesterday than previously. Perhaps I'm seeing some improvement. The elliptical BACKWARDS was much better, so I did it that way, which was a bit awkward but hey, it got my heart rate up.

***

Today I decided to do a longer cardio session since I had time. I did 30 min on the bike (with minor discomfort only), tried the stair stepper and decided it hurt too much, did 30 min on the elliptical alternating forward and backward (mostly backward, as the discomfort is less), and then 10 min on the rowing machine.

I feel like my leg is gradually improving. I continue to take naprosyn and use the TENS machine Kelly is letting me borrow. I drove to Provo yesterday afternoon (took a few sick hours with the boss' permission) to have her give me an ultrasound treatment, and her professor taped my leg too. Free PT! I love it!

It still hurts just to walk around, but it definitely seems better. Having the weekend off work will most likely help, as I walk quite a bit at work.

I'm taking it one day at a time. Yesterday I was a bit discouraged, but this morning I'm feeling more optimistic and hopeful that I'll be racewalking again soon. As long as I stay off the indoor track (well, counterclockwise anyway) I should be fine once I resume training, as it wasn't the normal training load that did this to me. That's some comfort and hope anyway.

injury update

It still hurts. Pretty bad.

This morning at the gym I did a cardio survey to see what hurts.

Elliptical - ouch.
Regular stationary bike - hurts a little.
Recumbent bike - pretty good; might be able to do this.
Arm cycle - fine but kills my wimpy arms! Might have to work up to this.
Rowing machine - surprisingly doesn't hurt much.

Didn't try swimming. That's pretty much my last resort I think. I wish I liked it more but I just don't.

I'm really bummed. A week off and I might be able to recover and train well enough and still hit a qualifying time. More than that, and it's not going to happen :(.

ouch

Drat. I woke feeling better after resting all night, but within about 5-10 min my leg was hurting quite a lot. It's very painful now (at lunch time) and I'm going to ice it. Coach's best guess is posterior tibialis muscle pain or tendonitis.

Today was a cross-training day, but that's not going to happen. If it's still this bad tomorrow I'll try the bike, or maybe swim. If it's a bit better tomorrow I will probably see if I can walk a little on the treadmill; if not, at least I can get right off and switch to elliptical or bike or whatever.

I'm still hoping this will only be a couple-3 day setback. If that's the case then all my hard training and the progress I've made will be preserved. Here's hoping!

tired 15K

I was tired, but believe it or not, I felt better than I did last Tuesday for the 15K. Add in better roads (overall...there were still icy spots, but we went on streets instead of the Jordan River Parkway, which was a better choice given this week's snow dump) and my time was quite a bit faster.

Kelly, on the other hand, felt terrible today. Just awful. Her GI system was cramping and screaming the WHOLE TIME. I have no idea who she put up with the pain, but at 10K she'd had enough and had to quit.

I walked a bit more slowly for the first 10K than I would have alone, for obvious reasons. I wasn't going to leave my buddy in the dust, and it wasn't critical to be fast today.

The weather was very cold. It was 12F (-11C) which is warmer than it's been in the morning, but there was a slight breeze and light snow and it just felt very, very cold today. Turns out that with the wind chill it FELT like -1F (-18.3C). I really wanted to stop when Kelly did and go get a hot coffee, but I didn't. I finished the workout alone and tried not to think about the cold, which helped.

My 5K splits were: 31:51, 32:24, and 31:02. You can see I walked faster after Kelly had to stop. I feel pretty sure I could have walked 1:32 today, but honestly, my legs were quite tired and I was happy to go slower. Total time: 1:35:16 with ave HR 143.

One bothersome issue - the medial side of my left ankle/lower shin is a bit painful today. I think it might be from the curves on the indoor track, but I'm not sure. It didn't hurt too much on the 15K but as the day has worn on it's started to hurt more, and it takes effort not to limp a bit. I'm not too concerned yet as I expect that tomorrow's cross-training day will ease the strain and let it rest. I certainly want it to be OK, because I've been training too well to get injured now!

Garmin data here.

3x2K; 4x422m on indoor track

We wimped out. It was just TOO cold out there this morning for speed work. It was only 1F (-17.2C). An easy 10K would have been OK I think, but not speed work. Unfortunately, the indoor track doesn't open until 6 am, and Kelly has to leave for school at 7 am. Our workout was, with warm-up, about 1 hr and 15 min, so we had to do it this afternoon. I got a sitter after work and met Kelly at my house. We drove to the Field House at the U and warmed up for about 1500m, stretched, and got going.

9.5 laps of the 211m track is 2004.5m, so we could pretty easily do 2K intervals that Jim had assigned. We started out faster than I'd planned on, but I was feeling good and wanted to test myself. We did the first 2K in 10:39.3, crossing the 1 mile mark in 8:22 (wow! that was fast!!!). After that I thought we might pay later, because that was the fastest 2K interval I've ever done. However, after 2 min rest (that was our rest interval for everything today) we cranked out another fast 2K, in 10:41.8. I thought we might have trouble holding that, and Kelly said after that she was really hurting bad on the last one, but we did hold it and finished in 10:41.7. Wow. Can't believe it. Kelly looked at my knees a few times and said they were good; only at one spot did she say my right knee might be a bit soft. I have the feeling my right knee was iffy at times, but I DID think about it and I think it was OK most of the time. I will continue to focus on bringing my right hip through low and hopefully that will keep the problem at bay.

Then we had 4x500. Jim said we could do 4x422m instead, that that would be good enough given that it's nigh unto impossible to measure 500m exactly on this track (527.5, no problem - that's 2.5 laps) because the only markings are at the start. Halfway is pretty easy to see, but after that it gets dicey. So...422m it was. We started fast and stayed that way. Our times were 2:07.6, 2:04.3 (Kelly led this one and promised we'd go slower hahaha!), 2:07.4 and 2:08.3 (oops...just edited this as I got it wrong the first time). (Those equate to 2:31 and 2:27 500s!).

Afterward we cooled off, walking slowly around the track a couple times. We drove back to my house and stretched and had lattes :) as well. We agreed that our legs were definitely quite Jell-O-like though, and that we might benefit from an ice bath.

So later this evening I got in the tub and ran the VERY COLD water. Seriously, the water was SO VERY COLD I could hardly believe it. I didn't need any ice, that's for sure. After 10 minutes in there my skin was red and I decided to see what the temperature was of the water. It was only 45F (7C)!!!!! EEEEK! No wonder it was so cold! I'm now trying to thaw out a bit.

I hope that helped. We agreed we had to do something to recover our legs, because we have 15K in the morning, and yeah, we pretty much have to do it in the morning because of our schedules tomorrow. It's going to be very, very cold, but we'll bundle up and hope for the best.

Garmin data here.

20K on indoor track

Walking outside today wasn't going to happen. The roads were still really bad from the snow, which was STILL falling as of this morning. Now it has stopped and the roads are better, but only the main roads are clear, and the roads we would walk on are likely to be pretty awful for a few days or more, as the temperatures are quite low.

Photo is from New Year's Revolution Run, 2 wk ago.

So Kelly and I decided that 20K at the Olympic Oval would be a wise move. The really nice 442m mondo track beckoned to us, along with the added attraction this morning of a speed skating competition to watch as we walked. There was a men's 5000m race going on and there were some other races as well; we were a bit focused on our workout so couldn't tell for sure what the other races were, but we were inspired by the fast skaters and the beauty of their fluid technique.

We had to walk in lane 3 because of the race; the officials were using parts of lanes 1 & 2 on the running track for various purposes. A spur-of-the-moment calculation yielded 43.67 laps for 20K (at 458 meters per lap). Turns out that it should have been 43.9 or so (by the track calculator at www.eracewalk.com) or 43.73 by another calculator. Well...close enough. It's a bit tricky since the track is a bit larger than a regular track. Anyway, no matter. We did the 43.67 laps in 1:59:47 for just about 6:00/km. (If we were off a bit then the time might be 30 sec-1 min more; we still felt fast!). I felt great today - my legs were a bit tired to start, but not too bad, and I felt like I had a lot of endurance and strength all the way to the end. My HR was 150 or so for most of the laps; we did push it a bit to maintain our pace when we tired on the last 6-7 laps and then it was about 156-158.

Having Kelly along was fantastic - we helped each other with our form a lot, chatted, and in general encouraged each other. She nags me about getting my arms back a bit more bringing my right hip through low, and staying upright enough, and I give her red cards for her left knee, help her with her arms, toe-off, and posture. We talk about everything while we walk, from our schedule and where/when we will walk next, to pop or country music, to the speed skaters (we're going to hopefully watch the World Cup live here on Jan 26-27!!!), and anything else that comes to mind. It's SO nice to have company exactly my speed. I'm spoiled now!

Garmin data here.

10K w/2x5' bursts on indoor track

We got a little bit of snow today. Racewalking outside? Impossible.

So Kelly and I opted for the indoor track at the U. The University of Utah, where I work, was open today despite the snow (bummer!). The track is 211m long, so 1:16 per lap is about 6:00/km pace, more or less. I was thinking we'd be slow after yesterday's 10K fartlek (forgot to mention Kelly was ill and didn't complete it - she started throwing up and decided her workout was over). Kelly's legs were very sore today, and mine felt pretty good, but I know that the day after a hard track workout is often slow. Well not today! We were both fast!

Most laps we were at 1:16 or less, and on the 2x5' fast we were 1:10 on the first set and then 1:12-1:14 on the second set (going the other direction, so in lane 3 and hence a bit slower because it's farther around). We alternated directions every 10 laps, which worked out fine. You can see that the lap times were a bit slower on laps 11-19 and 30-39. (one lap I missed, so after lap 13 you have to add one!). Our speed bursts were on laps 20-23 and 31-34; I missed about 8 sec on lap 19.

Total time: 59:28 with ave HR 142. It felt great! I loved having Kelly there to keep me company as it made the indoor track much more fun.

Garmin data here.

10K fartlek

Big hurry...fast post....

Weather: warm and windy - means snow is coming. It was 49F (almost 10C!) to start and 43F when I finished. Temperature dropping rapidly as the front moves in. Wind was 22mph gusting to 33mph. That obviously affected the workout negatively.

Legs: nice and fresh to start, but I did get pretty tired on the last slight uphill into the wind (starting at about 6km). The last 3km really hurt, though I pulled off a 2:44 for the last 500m. For the conditions, I think it was a pretty decent time.

Course: Track under snow, so this was at Liberty Park and on 600E. Slight uphills and slight downhills along the way mean that the 500m splits are a bit odd at times; factor in the wind and it's stranger yet.

Total time 58:11. Average HR 162; max 173. I was pushing very hard, and it shows.

Garmin data here.

almost 15K

We were slow today and part of the trail was unexpectedly slippery, so we cut the workout a bit short so I could get my kids to school on time - barely made it, but I made it. We did 14.65km instead of 15; close enough.

It was warmer today! It was 24F and noticeably less cold than the past few days. Whew.

Kelly and I were both sore after yesterday's 5x1km. Our legs were very heavy, and then at 9km, Kelly's foot started to hurt (the one she rolled a month ago) and so she jogged the last 6km. I racewalked the whole thing, but I was very slow. Some 500m were as slow as 3:35ish because of the ice and snow on the portion of the trail south of Winchester Park (from about 6-9km of our workout). If we'd known that, we would have gone north a ways instead, but we didn't know. Oops.

Poor Kelly was really hurting. First her legs were tired, like mine, then her foot started to hurt, and then she was nauseated. She didn't feel better until later after she'd had a cup of tea. She's had stomach issues for a few days and I wonder if she has the norovirus that's been going around in Provo, where she goes to school? At the very least she hung in there today when feeling totally rotten. She's worried but I told her that between her illness, foot injury, and low iron, she can expect a few bad days. I think it's beginning to get her down, though. I reminded her that our 3K fartlek on Saturday was really good, but that didn't seem to cheer her much.

It's nice to have a training partner w/the same workouts, though. If I feel off like I did today, and she does too, then I figure it's just the workouts. It makes more sense to have that context, and I really appreciate it.

Total time today: 1:34:29 for 6:27/km with ave HR 146.

Garmin data here.

5x1km fastest ever 1kms!

It was hard to get up this morning; I somehow (miraculously) managed to sleep until 8 am yesterday, even with 4 kids in the house (we had a sleepover), and so it was that much harder to get up to meet Kelly at Liberty Park at 6 am. But I made it, and my legs were feeling really good and rested, which was SO nice.

The conditions were a bit iffy. It was 12F (-11C), pitch black, and snowing lightly. The roads were OK so I figured 600 East would be good for our 1Ks. We warmed up on the park sidewalk, which was slightly slippery but not awful (but no good for speed work for sure), and we took a look at 600E but it was too slick. However, the park ROAD (next to the sidewalk) was fine, and thankfully we were able to use that for our 1Ks. It worked out well, and didn't have any traffic so early in the day. Besides, in the park cars are more attentive.

I took my first 1km somewhat conservatively because of the conditions (which I wasn't sure of the first time) and because it was the first of 5. I was still fast, doing a 5:18.6. We rested 2 min and chatted; Kelly said she was feeling lousy, but I felt good. We started the next one and Kelly stayed with me until very near the end; I screwed up my watch and said "stop" but we still had a bit to go. Then I pushed stop instead of lap and so I had the time for 0.93km. Grrrr! But extrapolating that out for 0.07km we did 5:11.0 for the second km. Nice! But Kelly felt worse after that and I gave her a pep talk during our 2 min rest.

Sometimes during an interval workout you wonder when/if your legs will give out. I wondered a little, but channeled my thoughts back into a little mantra, "Tuck your hips low" which is shorthand for tuck your butt and bring your hips through low. I focused on exhaling with my left foot push, and I felt really strong and smooth. And yes, my knees were straight. At least I was thinking about it, and pretty sure it was all good; Kelly looked and said they were fine on the 1st km but after that she didn't look.

The last 3km all felt pretty good, considering how hard I was working. My average HR for the last 500s of each was 169, 171, and 173, so I was going hard! My last 3 splits were: 5:15.9, 5:11.2, and 5:12.5. That's my fastest set of 1kms ever. Total time: 26:09.

Kelly was hurting on the last 3km and was about 15-20 sec behind me on most of them :(. I tried to encourage her as best as I could, telling her that I was Maria Michta and she had to chase me. She worked as hard as she could and gave it her all and didn't quit. I think she's still suffering a bit from her cold.

My coach and I have been talking about the possibility of me qualifying for outdoor nationals in Des Moines in June. We agree that it is now within the realm of possibility, though it will be tough. The qualifying times needed are 5K 26:00, 10K 54:00, or 20K 1:52:00. We are shooting for the 1:52:00 20K in March in Huntington Beach, CA, but if I don't get that, I think a 26:00 5K could also be within reach? Hard, but maybe possible. I'm going to train like it is possible and see what comes out.

Garmin data here.

3K fartlek PR and 3K PR!!!!!

ARRRGH! I accidentally deleted the workout off of my Garmin.

Fortunately, it was short enough that I remember the splits (and I reviewed them afterward, so I do know them). Unfortunately, I didn't look at my average HR. I do know it was about low-mid 160s on the medium-effort 500s.

Because Kelly was with me, 1) I went fast, and 2) she looked at my knee and pronounced it good :). Whew.

Kelly was super fast today, too. She was about 3 sec slower on the first recovery but then we were the same speed.

Weather: brrrrrrrr! It was 9F (-13C) by Kelly's thermometer and 12F (-11C) by my car thermometer. There was a slight breeze in our faces heading out and that felt SO very cold! But with a long-sleeved shirt and my new jacket on top, and tights and fleece on the bottom, I stayed warm enough (oh, and hat and gloves too).

My legs felt good this morning - even better than yesterday, which surprised me since I did 8K yesterday. But I think I'm starting to recover from the sore muscles, FINALLY. I am really relieved, because I was getting a bit concerned.

We did an easy warm-up of 1.65km (just over a mile) in about 10:30. That was slow because the sidewalks getting to the Jordan River Trail (the track is under 6 inches of snow...so it's still out of the question) were a bit icy, and there's a bit of a hill too. Plus, we were taking it VERY easy to warm our muscles gently. Though my legs felt OK I wanted to be cautious.

Just before we started the fartlek, we did a few leg swings for dynamic flexibility, while holding on to each other's shoulders. There were trees nearby but off the path it was really snowy and we wanted to keep our feet warm!

We started off nice and fast, in 2:36 for 500m, and then settled in for 2:42 for the second 500m. In retrospect, we should have pushed that one a bit harder perhaps? In any case, the 500m recovery was 2:51 for me and 2:54 for Kelly, who was a bit fatigued after the 1km hard (though on all the rest she stayed with me; I waited the 3 sec for her with watch stopped). Turning around and retracing our steps back, we did an amazing 2:29 (first time I've been under 2:30 for a 500m!) for our next fast split. We followed that up with a very fast 2:44 medium-effort 500m, and finally, gave it all we had (really --- I left nothing in the tank) for a blazing fast 2:27. WOW! I wish I could see my HR data...but I'm pretty sure it was in the low-mid 170s by the finish. Maybe even high 170s? Anyway, the total time was 15:50!!!!! I was SO happy to be under 16:00 for the first time ever, and I broke my 3K PR of 16:18 by almost 30 seconds!!!!!!!!

I feel very encouraged. I felt I was using my glutes well and walking efficiently. Oh, and I forgot to mention something that I think helped - I realized the other day on the elliptical that I was exhaling when my right foot came down (my dominant leg). I decided that if I exhaled when my LEFT foot came down and pushed that I might use my left leg more effectively. So today, when I was walking the fartlek, I consciously thought about my breathing and actually had to switch it up several times because I naturally switched to breathing out with my right foot! I think it helped a lot to exhale with my left foot to get more push off the left leg, psychologically at least if not physically. I felt strong. And Kelly says I was legal :). (I was thinking about that right knee, believe me!).

So glad I'm feeling better. I'm ready for some good training. Let's hope that it goes better leading up to the 20K in March than it did before the 40K (illness) and 30K (injury). You can't control these things, but it sure would be nice to have a good race, after several not-so-great efforts.

8K

Today I did 8K with Kelly. We are having really cold weather right now, so we opted to go at noon rather than the crack of dawn. It was still cold, but not so bad in the sun. This morning at my house it was 6F (-14.4C) and at noon at Liberty Park it was 19F (-7.2C). That's probably about as warm as it's going to get today. Brrrr.

Still, all bundled up with fleece and my new warm jacket, I was fine. The sun helped a lot to keep us warm, and we agreed it really wasn't so bad as long as we were moving! And at least it was dry, we had good toe-off, and it wasn't windy.

My legs still don't feel recovered from last week/Tuesday/whatever. But they do feel a lot better than they did! The first km today was awkward and stiff but then I loosened up and felt OK.

Total time 48:40 for 8K (by Kelly's watch; mine said we were at 7.94k) for 6:05/km with ave HR 148. My HR seemed high again today, probably because my muscles are still sore.

Garmin data here.

cross-training

6 miles on the elliptical this morning. The gym was busy...it's that time of year, I guess. Hopefully some of them will stick around and get fit.

My muscles are feeling a LOT better. I am supposed to walk 8km tomorrow so I'm glad they are feeling pretty good again.

cross-training; videos from race

Today I did 45 min on the elliptical. I was a bit stiff and heavy-legged, but it felt OK. I was glad to do it and loosen up a bit!

***

Here are a couple videos from yesterday's race, taken when I was VERY tired, in laps 45 and 46 of a 48-lap race.

video 1
video 2

New Year's Revolution Run 1/2 Marathon

The plan was to race this half marathon. It was held indoor at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, which has a very nice Mondo running track that is 442m/lap; a half marathon is just shy of 48 laps. Well, actually it was a 5-hour run and you could do as few or as many laps as you wanted to in the allotted time, but I had decided in advance to do the half and get the medal, which I did do.

The race itself was well-organized, though a bit crowded with all the runners on the track. I think they had about 350 registered, though not everyone was on the track at the same time or for the whole 5 hours. Kelly and I walked in lane 2/3 for most of the time, which did add some to the race distance, but doesn't explain just how slow I was...sigh...

I did enjoy the various T-shirts on the runners, seeing my friends who were there (Nancy, Diane, Bonnie, Sarah, Kelly, and a runner Don who did our RW clinic a while back), and walking in inside comfort (it was 21 this morning or something cold, and snowing when we arrived at the race).

The original plan was to race it; however, I couldn't. My legs were very sore again this morning, like I'd been doing squats for 3 days in a row or something. Seriously, when I started a brief warm-up, I was limping and wincing. I was bummed out that I couldn't race, but what are you going to do? So I decided to go easy with Kelly, who also couldn't race because 1) she is still recovering from a VERY bad cold, and 2) has a foot problem from rolling her ankle on a pinecone a month ago.

We were both in a lot of pain today. It was not pretty. I did loosen up after 4-5 laps and felt better for a while, but after 15K I started to hurt more. I concentrated on working on my form and I think that went pretty well. I felt smoother for a bit before I got really tired. I was able to keep the pace but my heart rate was really very high for how slowly I went today. Coach says it's because my muscles are so sore from the slippery workouts this last week. I'm sure he's right. I need a couple days off now, and I'm getting it :).

Total time: an embarrassing 2:17:24 with ave HR 153. Garmin data here. At least my lap times were consistent from beginning to end.

Sarah, me, and Kelly after the race.