Three Things Thursday X 2 + 1

I got my new Brooks yesterday!! Can I just say that I LOVE them!!  They are so amazingly comfortable.  I took them out for their first trial run this morning.  I was conservative and only ran 1 mile in them.  I can definitely say that they work different muscles – almost immediately I could feel my calves, and about half mile in I could feel my hamstrings really working.  I will definitely have to transition into the slowly.  But overall, I am really happy with the purchase. It felt so weird when I took them off and started running in my normal running shoes.

• Winter is here!  I am not ready for this weather yet.  It was 25 degrees this morning.  When I came home from my run I had ice crystals on my gloves…..not used to that one!  Brrrr……..

• 
  My Breaking Dawn midnight movie buddy had to cancel on me, but have no fear I ended up changing my plans and I’m going to an 8pm pre-screening tonight.  I am however going all by myself.  But I’ll be surrounded by literally thousands of other fans so it will still be fun!

• My pace times are actually decreasing instead of increasing.  This is very frustrating.  I suppose it’s a combination of running with pain and the colder weather.  Jim informs me his times get slower in the winter too.  I am struggling to maintain around a 13 minute mile pace – even on my shorter runs.  Just a few months ago I was hovering around 11:30…..it sucks!  I did a “speed” run yesterday and my average pace was around 11:50 – I was doing those around 10:30 not that long ago.  Arghh……

• I do think my new Dr. is seriously on to something.  He discovered a very tender spot in my abdomen – tender as in, when he applies pressure I can hardly stand up from the pain.  It’s weird because I never even knew the pain was there.  He thinks I might have an adhesion.  I am having a few other medical tests done just to rule out other causes, but he’s still kind of working on it.  For sure I have very tight rectus abdominus and psosas muscles.  I did a little internet research on issues that can be caused by these muscles being tight – first thing mentioned for the rectus abdominus muscle is shoulder instability – what!!  Crazy right?  It’s amazing how interconnected our bodies are.  The Psoas causes pain in the hip flexors.  So anyway, still working on strengthening my core and going to ART a few times a week.  I am not seeing over night improvement, but I didn’t expect to – I am however seeing some improvement so that’s encouraging.

• I have 19 miles on tap for Saturday!!  This will take me approximately 4 hours+.  I will be experimenting with eating actual solid food while on the run.  Since I am a slow runner and my marathon will take me between 5 and ½ and 6 hours I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it on gels alone, so I figure I better start getting it figured out now.  It’s only 8 more weeks til marathon time! Do any of you eat during a long run?  I know it’s not common, but I’m going to be out there a long time.  I totally bonked on my 17 miler and almost couldn’t make it in the door.  After I got some food in me I felt much better.  I’m hopeful this will help me finish a little stronger this week.

• Weight loss update.  I've been doing Weight Watchers 3 weeks now and I'm down 6 pounds!  Woot!  It's not a ton of weight, but I'm going in the right direction!