September Rewind

September was an iffy month.  It started out slow and ended slow.  Not a ton of excitement in between.  You will probably laugh when I say that I was disappointed to realize that I *only* ran 150 miles.  I think that since the kids all got back in school that I'd really kick it up a notch and really pull in some miles.  I also thought that since pulling back at the end of August to fully recover that I'd come back nice & strong & kick the rest of my injury to the curb.

Even though I didn't mention it I've been having some lower back problems & it hurts to run.  It seems to stem from my pre-existing injury that apparently hasn't 100% healed.  So what do I do when something hurts??  Yep, I keep on running.  So perhaps someone needs to smack me upside the head & say "don't do that!"  Well, even if you did I'd likely roll my eyes & let it go in one ear & out the other.  Let me clarify that when something is bothering me & I run, I feel like I'm in complete control of said problem.  I take it easy or don't go as far.  I have been better about not pushing my body.  I've been sleeping in more often to be fully rested.  My pace is darn near pathetic (for me....my pace doesn't compare to your pace!).  I've really, REALLY gotten better about lifting weights & stretching.  Taking care of the whole package & not just run, run, run.

It all boils down to I haven't run injury or pain free since I fell in May.  It's wearing on my last nerve!!  I realize there are worse problems to have.  So far the injury & pain haven't completely sidelined me from doing anything.  I just feel so tried & tested in this area & some days I really struggle with just wanting to turn my back on running all together (now there is some REAL crazy talk!!).  It would be ideal to scale back & have running at least take the back seat for awhile, but I am STILL chasing down my Run This Year challenge.  Oh, no....I have NOT given up on this yet.  Yes, I do still believe I can do it!  As of the end of September I have logged 1,362 miles toward that 2013 goal.  I'm constantly doing that math.  Only 650 more miles which equals about 7 miles a day from now until the end of the year.  Yes, I can do that!  I'm already averaging 5 miles a day.  I just need to add in some more miles.  Maybe do an extra 2 in the evening.  It doesn't take much.  I don't care if I have to walk or crawl those miles they will get done.

As you can see I don't plan to be scaling back my miles.  My pace?  My intensity?  Yes!  I know, go ahead, roll your eyes....I'm that special kind of stupid!  I really just want to finish out this year & THEN take it easy.  I do plan to keep my streak alive (speaking of which my streak is now 491 days strong), but cut way down on my mileage for next year.  I don't even plan to have any kind of goal dealing with mileage.  Next year is going to look completely different!  For now, though, I need to focus on the remaining 92 days of the year!