I had a rough week, but a productive week.  Let me explain.  I went on two short runs during the week, but had a lot of pain on those runs.  I had PT on Tuesday and Thursday and I ran on those nights as well.  Tuesday’s run was worse than Thursday.  

In my appointment Thursday I showed Lisa where the pain was isolating in my IT bands and told her that instead of just the exercises, I need to break up the muscle spasms and loosen them up.  So she inflicted pain (good and bad pain), by using her elbows and digging into the IT bands along the sides of my knees and my thighs.  I am still bruised from it, but I knew it was necessary pain to go through to regain my strength and pain free running.  Thursday night’s run was better.  Not perfect, but better.

On Friday when I got up I felt things that I knew needed attention right away, rather than wait until the following week’s appointment.  So, I made an appointment and went to physical therapy.  I showed them where the areas of pain were and did my exercises and then was able to benefit from the deep tissue massage.  

This was good.  My legs were feeling better Saturday and by Sunday morning I was nervous, but ready to go for a long run.  I had hoped to get in a 10 mile run, but was open to the fact that I may not get past 6 or 8 miles.   The weather was spectacular.  It was sunny, mid 70’s and no humidity.  I had a little pain; but was in a much better place.  I enjoyed the run.  I did not have any negative thoughts in my mind either despite some fatigue and pain I was experiencing around mile 7 and I knew I still had 3 miles to get me home.  

Having a good 10 mile run under my belt, I am feeling a lot more confident about the 1/2 marathon in Disney Land.  I was sore the day after and it took a lot of heat and rolling, Bengay and stretching to allow me to walk.  Instead of running this week I made the difficult decision to take an extra day for rest and to also walk on my scheduled run day. I usually push through the pain. This pain has been something that I shouldn’t push through anymore. Especially with several PT sessions and slow progress. I would rather go to PT and have benefits of the therapy, rather than go there and do disaster recovery. It was a tough decision for me not to run, but then I realized that many times I had to not run for 7-10 days because of my back and I continued to get my alone time and training time by just walking instead, and according to Jeff Galloway you are still training for endurance by walking. So I realize I won’t lose too much of my training if I walk two of my runs instead of run them. Instead of hoping to do 13 miles this weekend I am going to hope for 5-8.

As for my packing and costumes, I am really happy.  I have my 10K costume picked out and I think I have coordinated something good for the 1/2 marathon. I purchased this shirt from rawthreads.com and I love it! Their fabric is so nice! I will be sure to purchase more from them at the Expo. I started packing my bags and putting things aside along with making my lists of don’t forgets! Mandy and I have plans for me to join her family for dinner on Friday, we’ll participate in the Run Disney so I can Eat Disney event, and I am looking forward to the meet ups scheduled for Saturday as well. With all this fun, I still have to figure out time to go into the parks!