I Came in Like a Wrecking Ball... (sort of)

Seriously, this is how I felt last week with my running... I was on a streak, hitting the bricks every day from Wednesday through Sunday, completing two 5Ks and the longest run of my life at 9.4 miles on Sunday.  Feeling seemingly invincible (why wouldn't I, a 40 year old women who has been semi-consistently running outdoors since late August?), I decided to hop on my treadmill Monday evening to get in my 1 mile run for the Runner's World Run Streak. While I knew that I still had a couple of aches from the previous day's long run, I figured I just needed to get my legs loosened up and I'd be fine.

The truth was that my legs hurt, bad.  My right knee throbbed and some muscles (I have no idea which ones - human anatomy always grossed me out in college) at the top of both thighs were sore - and STILL are by the way. Knowing that mentally I may not come back from another sidelining injury (See my femoral neck stress fracture and Achilles tendinitis sob-stories to understand my fragile mental state) I reached out to Jeff Galloway for some advice.  Fortunately,
I signed up for Jeff's e-coaching program a couple of months ago and I figured it was time to take full advantage of this resource considering the cost of the investment - honestly, I gave up my Ann Taylor Loft habit for for this!

Generally, Jeff is a pretty stand up cheerleader and always makes me feel good about my accomplishments no matter how trivial they may seem to a more seasoned runner. But when I emailed Jeff my previous week's running report on Tuesday he went a little gangsta on me.

If you are not following Matt Bellassai on Facebook you don't know the belly laughs you are missing, stop what you are doing check him out immediately...  DO IT NOW.

He had a laundry list of complaints concerns which centered around me being too aggressive with my pacing, run/walk intervals and running schedule all of which were leading me down the path to another injury (he is well aware of my history of being broke down from the neck down). Bottom line, I need to keep my eye on the prize which is finishing the 22.4 miles I am committed to running during Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend, not logging in 1 mile of running every day for the 37 days between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. 

So, here I am all dejected while I wait for my leg muscles to feel better, slumming it on the treadmill at a measly 3 MPH pace during my "off" days (Galloway approved) to get in my 1 mile per day...  I guess I better get used to it for the time being - I don't like a "gangsta Jeff", I prefer a warm, fuzzy Jeff that is all rainbows and unicorns.