Not again!

It was an innocent 6 miles I took with merciful ease. Just rebounding from a week down with a strained glute and shin splits, I even stopped halfway through to stretch. "It's better to under train than overtrain," I consistently remind myself. But with mile five came the Woeful Wall of Trots. The symptoms tease for a few miles and you think they'll subside. But then they become nothing doubting and fear sets in coupled with peristaltic waves of agony. I kept thinking about seeing my sister in labor yesterday (Oh yeah, Christina had a baby! I'll get to that later.) and I wondered, "Does labor feel like this? ...I can't have kids. Not ever! This horrible! *whimpering*" I made it home. I made it to the bathroom even. But I was sick as a dog the rest of the night. This may also be related to the fact that I became "girl sick" yesterday.

In other training news, I've altered my diet and it's been hard to keep up with the eating and meal preparing, but I'm doing it. This race is taking a lot of work but I'm glad to do it. This is a rare time in life where I have the luxury of putting this amount of time and focus into something. It's funny how my hoped-for finishing time changes from day to day. I started out in March telling myself "anything below 4 hours" and then training really picked up and I was making unexpected gains and imagining I could sustain an 8:00 pace for 26 miles the way things were looking and feeling. Then when I come back down to earth I think, "I'll finish in 3:50." But yesterday I was wondering how I will ever survive the training. I have four months yet to put in and need to avoid injury that whole time yet satisfy the miles required. I'll have to keep myself well rested and make sure I'm giving myself adequate recovery time, not to mention all the effort it takes to eat healthy and eat enough. When I went down to Moab in March to watch the half marathon, I couldn't help but think about the hours of preparation each participant represented, especially the early finishers. The reason I promised myself (way back in 2003) not to do a Marathon is this HUGE gap in commitment it takes to do it. Training for a half marathon is kinderspiele compared against a marathon. I can't imagine making a lifestyle out of it.

Additionally I've joined an indoor soccer team. This was probably a bad call (especially considering games fall on Saturday's, my long run day.) But given I've been wanting to play again for three years, I'm letting it happen. I played one game and felt tight through my hamstrings and quads for over a week. Stupidly, I thought since I've been training, I'd be able to play without a problem (imagining I'd out run everyone.) Nope. Indoor soccer is a whole different animal and shortly into the first half, I was dry heaving. Awesome.

I wish I could say that after all this exercise I'm realizing a great beach body, but that isn't the case either. I've gained 12 pounds and my pants are fitting tight through the legs. Why am I doing this, again? ;)