I'm out

This has been very hard for me to accept. I've known it was coming for a few weeks, and it's taken me that long to struggle with accepting it. I'm OK with it now, but still disappointed a bit. I've had my eye on this race for more than a year now, and accepting that it is now a lost goal is hard. I also feel like I'm letting everyone else down. I know no one needs me to show up for them to be able to run it, but after I've spent all this time talking people into it, I'm the one to back out. That's hard too.

The good news is, it's temporary. Maybe I can run it next year. Or do a different long race. (I know this is technically a middle distance, but for me, it's long.) We'll reevaluate in another month.

So I got my instructions from the dr: no more than 3 miles per run. Limit weekly mileage to 12 miles. Slow runs only, keep the heartrate below 150. No lifting, except for some very light weights with high reps. No more ab machine, just crunches. No more pull-ups on the assist machine. That's another goal lost: I wanted to be able to do one pull-up by myself by the end of the year. I'd already made significant progress toward that goal too. I started at 85 lbs of assist and barely doing 8. I am now at 55 lbs and able to do 3 sets of 8. That strength will be gone soon.

Some more good news is that I feel better with these limitations. I enjoy my runs more and am not exhausted afterward. In fact, today I noticed the blackberries are getting ripe. So I didn't stop to smell the roses, but I did stop to pick the berries!

Guess I'm now officially a cheerleader. And Angie, I can still run with you when I get there, just not as far. Cathy--good luck with your Philly race. Oh how I love the flats too! Don't increase the suck. Just getting to the start line sucks enough! :)