A "slip" in my training

Thursday, December 27th

8:30 AM - 5 Miles, 34 min
Winchester

My legs were feeling pretty ragged today from the workout last night. Since tomorrow is a planned tempo run, I decided to keep things short and make up for it tomorrow with a little more quality.

Friday, December 28th

7:30 AM - 2 min
8:15 AM - 4 Miles, 30 min (treadmill)

So after taking an easy day yesterday, I woke up this morning feeling much better. My legs were a little looser and I was ready to get out for a nice comfortable tempo run. This would just be a moderate workout between Wednesday's track session and Sunday's Millennium Mile. As I walked out the door, I noticed that the stairs were a little slick... then when I got out to the road, I realized that everything was covered in a fresh layer of black ice from the rain we got last night. I thought to myself, "this should be interesting". Sure enough, 2 min into my warm up (about the time I encountered the first turn), my feet slid from beneath me and I hit the ground. I hit hard! I think I hit my knee first but there wasn't much weight behind it so it only got a few cuts. My hip, however, hit next and had the bulk of my weight behind it. As I lay sprawled out in the road for a couple minutes, I tried to assess the damage while people began to gather on the sidewalk, watching the freshly splattered road kill try to make his way back to his feet. I knew right away, I was not going to be finishing my run. I struggled just to hobble back to the house.

I wanted to try to get something in though, mostly to keep the joint from locking up on me. But I was done with running on the roads today, so I went into the store early to use the treadmill and see if I could do anything in the condition I was in. The hip was already getting pretty stiff so I started the first 5 min or so at 8:00+ pace and was only able to get down to 7:30 pace during the run. I managed to get 30 min in but it certainly wasn't pleasant. I then had to work for 12 hours as I hobbled around the store with pain and discomfort. Walking isn't easy, stairs are brutal, and some stretches are near impossible. Even pushing in the clutch while driving is painful. This all makes me very unhappy. I'll have to take things day by day, but right now, i'll have to pass on the race this Sunday.

I haven't really complained much about the weather on here so I'd like to do that now. I'm not even two weeks into my indoor season and I am already sick of winter. I miss having my trails to run on, I miss my long runs that aren't interrupted by traffic or snowbanks. I miss not having to cut my stride short when going through snow and ice, I miss the way things were a few weeks ago. All I want is to run fast, really fast! I want to be able to work hard in my training and enjoy that work. With the way things have been, it's a struggle just to get in an hour out in this crap. The only times that I've been comfortable and have had a glimpse of hope for my goals has been inside on the track. I just want to get back into a steady training routine. I'll do whatever I have to in order to get these things done, but it would be nice if I could get a little cooperation sometimes. Lately, it seems that not many things have gone my way and I just hope that I can fight my way through it and give myself the best opportunities for success.