12 days...not that I am counting :-)

until Nashville!  Nothing like spending the day tracking all your favorite friends running Boston to get psyched up about an upcoming marathon!

So inside two weeks and I am feeling pretty good.  My ITB seems much happier which I attribute almost entirely to ART and Dr. Keyes.  The pain is almost completely gone.  Also I have been a little concerned about some weird numbness and tingling down by my tibia which immediately makes me panic and think stress fracture.  Yet after discussing with Dr. and looking into it a bit, it seems to be my posterior tibial nerve is being compressed.  So now I am working on getting that sorted out, but pretty optimistic about that overall.

I am soooo over this spring and ready for summer.  I really just want to run in shorts and bike outside without a billion layers on!  Last week was quiet and did not get much in in the way of biking but hit all my runs pretty well.

This past Saturday, Cleveland Triathlon Club was supposed to host a duathlon but due to the forecasted rain, cold and high winds we switched it to a trail run.  This was a great idea.  There was a huge turnout that came out in the rain to get muddy on some gorgeous trails.  At first I was trying to avoid getting my shoes fully soaking wet, but by the time I was half way through I was just splashing through the creek crossings.  It was gloriously fun to feel like a kid again, get muddy and run with many old and new faces.  This equaled a perfect way to spend a rainy morning and I even managed to hit the pool for 2000 meters beforehand!

Then it was time for our CTC brunch and swap meet.  I came out ahead for the day with my sale and picked up a sweet vintage yellow bike jersey, some tires and tubes.  SCORE!  CTC VP, Durno, was our evil genius of a chef all morning making us up the best egg sandwiches!  YUM!  Then we had a huge pow-wow with TTT vet, EG, to learn all that we would want to know about TTT.  One of the best perks of this club is learning from the other members!

Sunday,  I met up with sis to go run the Fleet Feet Pepper Pike Grand Opening 5K.  Coach wanted me to run even and run 19:56 or 6:26 per mile.  Doable, no problem I thought.  Yet, my legs were feeling less than fresh after a solid week of running and all those hills on the trail run which were not exactly ran at an easy pace.  Then there was the howling wind screaming out of the south west (at least most the time but sometimes I swear I could feel it random directions).   I got in a nice solid easy 3 miles before starting into my striders before the race and then was ready to go.

With the start, I was off.  I was consciously looking at my garmin forcing myself to slow down.  Even pace I kept thinking which I should have known was crazy with the wind. One female ran ahead of me, but I was resolved to try to stick with the plan and hope to catch her later.  Mile 1, 6:21 (a hair fast).  As we started into the second mile a pack of guys were right around me.  There were two options in the parking lot before heading into the path.  I was not sure which way I was supposed to go.  I took the slightly longer one which likely cost a few seconds and a lot of other took the other option and I sort of berated myself for not going that way too.  Then I surged ahead to get into the path first which I think got my HR a little too high.  As we made the right on to the road we were heading dead into the south wind and I looked down to see my pace slowing.  CRAP!  As we hit the second mile marker, I tried to pick back up  my pace but now I felt like I was working hard.  There was a little downhill before heading west into the wind on Chagrin.  Then another down and up before making the final left onto 87.  "THIS WIND IS KILLING ME," I kept thinking.  As I rounded the corner into the lot I saw 19:XX and I tried to sprint as fast I could to get in under 20.  I finished with a 19:59 and 2nd overall female.  It was not the 19:56 I was looking for, but guess I will shrug it off for now.  I would make the excuse it was the wind but I should have ran harder!

The Bike Authority Fleet Feet team had a good showing and it was an awesome turnout and showing of support for Jody& Heather and their new Fleet Feet Pepper Pike location!  I ran just over a 2 mile cooldown with sis before heading out!  Sis ran so hard I thought she might get sick at the end :-) .  She ended up with 2nd AG and of course this big sis was proud!   Headed home after that for a little more chilly motorcycle riding!  Given the somewhat crummy weather for the weekend, it turned out pretty good!