Last Long Run

This morning was my last long run before Grandmas Marathon in 2 and a half weeks. And it was pissy.

First, you should know that I cancelled my tempo run last week - I started out and decided to call off the 6-8 mile tempo run about a half mile into it. My achilles was a little sore, and I didn’t have much to gain from a shorter tempo run at this point. I’m TRYING to play it smart. I was proud that I had decided to stop.

So today was the first time I was really going to try running in exactly one week. Last week Tuesday, I ran 17.5 miles at marathon pace with A LOT of achilles pain. This week, I was really hoping to get in around 20 miles as my last pre-marathon run. It didn’t happen.

I was just over 1 mile into the run today when my heel started hurting about as much as it did last week at mile 10. I knew it wasn’t going to last - I didn’t want to overdo it now and take myself out of the marathon before it started. I turned around under 3 miles into the run, and ran a total of 5.5 sore, crabby miles.

I got home and threw my unused, untouched Fuel Belt on the counter, still full of water, Gatorade, and 3 gels:

I stretched for about 25 minutes, and then iced for a bit on the couch:

Kermit joined me

Deep inside, I KNOW that I can go the distance, but one last long run would have been good for my mental satisfaction. Last week I was watching a special on PBS about the physical AND mental training that Marine Officers go through. One of the men on the program said that the Spartans had a saying that went something like, “Training is less about strengthening the back, and more about strengthening the mind.” I could have used that mental toughening today, but I’ll have to do without.

On Thursday, I have an appointment with a doctor who specializes in ART (active release techniques). I’ve been told by local blogger buddy Julia that this guy can work magic! We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you updated.

Because I’ve been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately, let me leave you with something a little more entertaining. Two months ago, just after April 1st, I got to the University of Minnesota to get ready to teach my Digital Photo course. I logged into the instructor computer, and I saw this:

I don’t want to go into the history of that image, but regardless, someone had found that image of me and placed it as the background image on the instructor computer. I laughed out loud a little, and promptly replaced the background with just a solid color before the digital projector warmed up and was projecting that image to the entire class.

More of my students started showing up and logging in to the computers to get ready for class. Just before class was to begin, I realized something was not quite right. That image was on the background of all 20 computers in the room, in front of every student. Damn it. Good April Fools joke, but damn it.

One of the other young instructors (whom I’ve known for 6+ years) had played her first large-scale April Fools joke by hacking into our class log-in and putting that image on all the computers. She’s not “that type” of person, so it was a shock to find out it was her. Well played. Good for her. Caroline, watch your back next April...that’s all I have to say...