Day 51 and 52

I took the last 2 days off as well to see if I can get rid of this pain. Sarah suprised me today and took me to Salt Lake Running Company to get me an early Anniversary present - The Marathon Stick. It's for massaging my muscles after running and it helps push the lactic acid from your muscles which aids in your recovery. I also had a chance to talk to Seth Wold who helped me pick the right Stick model for me and gave me a lot of advice. I described my hip pain to him and found out it's my ITB. I had read that it might be my ITB, but because my knee hadn't hurt at all, I kind of blew it off before. Seth gave me advice on using the stick to help with my ITB. Seth Wold is currently the fastest Marathon runner in Utah - he ran a 2:22 marathon in winning Ogden this year. I always love going to Salt Lake Running Company instead of just going to a big sports chain store because the workers are all runners and I pick up a lot of great advise from them.

Day 50

Today was my rest day, which was well needed. My hip/upper leg still has a small pain in it, so I may take 1 more day off to try and get it to heal a little more.

Day 48

Well, I got home late because our city puts on a fireworks show every year on the 3rd of July, so I got out later than I wanted to (about 7:30). Because of missing 2 long runs while I was hurt, then coming back during a step back week, today's run was 5 miles longer than my previous longest run during this training, so I once again ignored my pace and went purely by my heart rate because I didn't want to hurt myself. I knew that my little 20 oz water bottle wasn't going to be enough, so I strapped my 2 liter camelback full of powerbar endurance drink on and ran 12.0 miles in 2:21:33 for an average pace of 11:47. My average heart rate was 165. I was a little slower than I wanted, but I felt great at the end and made sure to do just about every stretch I could think of.

Day 47

Today was a rest day and I worked a bit later than I normally do, so I woke up and made everyone breakfast. After work, we were invited by my friend Ryan to go over to his Mom's house by Granite High to hang out and watch fireworks. We had a great time, although I shouldn't have eaten 3 hot dogs. Now it's late at night the night before I am supposed to run 12 miles and I am still awake. I just loaded up my camelback with some powerbar sports drink and put it in the fridge so that I can just grab it and go in the morning. This will be my first time running with it, but I won't be able to carry enough to take me through the run otherwise.

Day 46

I slept in today so I was already in a hurry, so of course I start running and my right hip flexor started hurting which forced me to slow my pace a mile into the run. I ended up stopping around halfway and doing some lunges to stretch out my hip. That lessened the pain and I was able to speed up again. I think it was hurting because I was running a little late yesterday and didn't stretch after my run as much as I normally do. My mile splits were 9:33, 11:39, 10:36. My full numbers for the run were 3.01 miles in 31:51 for an avg pace of 10:36. My avg heart rate was 152 bpm.

Day 45

I woke up early and got in 6 miles before work, it felt great, though I was sure to keep my pace down a little over the first half. My mile splits were 11:16, 11:41, 11:41, 11:16, 10:52 and 10:00. The totals ended up being 6.01 miles in 1:06:53 for a pace of 11:08/mile. My avg heart rate was 159.