A welcome curse

I think I've come to a conclusion about me + marathon training: the 16-miler in my 16-18-20 cycle is cursed. And I am OK with that. Evidence:

Detroit Marathon, 2009: shooting pain from an ITB injury, cut the 16-miler short and limped back to my car frustrated, defeated, sad (read that anti-pep talk here). I repeated the 16-miler the following week and went on to a huge personal victory with the race (here).

Lewis & Clark Marathon, 2010: The 16-miler was a total disaster. I didn't hydrate properly and waited an hour too long in too hot weather to start the run. The 18-miler the following week went really well and I went on to PR the race by over 27 minutes. (now I'm just bragging)

Cleveland Marathon, 2011: Last weekend's 16-miler didn't go badly, it didn't go at all. Thank you all for the comments. You made me feel so much better about it, and convinced me to be easier on myself. I still wasn't convinced that I could spread my 13.1 mile success from Martian into 26.2. My workouts went well this week, but I was still apprehensive. So when I started out today's 18-miler, I wasn't at all sure how it was going to go. Here's how it went:

Mile 1--9:34 (whoa lady, slow down! You know from experience not to run long runs at race pace! What are you doing?!?)
Mile 2--9:40 (well, this does feel easy, but cool it, lady. Cool it.)
Mile 3--9:55 (ok, slow-down enforced. But I wanna go fast.)
Mile 4--9:36 (I might pay for this later)
Mile 5--9:54 (now KEEP IT HERE)
Mile 6 & .3 (end of first loop)--9:45 pace

Second loop: 9:38, 9:36, 9:37, 9:31, 9:35, 9:28.
Holy consistency, Batman! By this time (total, 12.6 miles), I'd decided that the pace was fine and I probably wasn't going to pay for it. But I've never pulled a pace like this at this distance. I was sort of in disbelief!

Third loop: 9:31, 9:28, 9:33, 9:23, 9:31.
I felt awesome. AWESOME. I felt as fresh at mile 16.5 as I had at mile 2.

I don't want to get cocky here. Believe me, I'm still terrified/excited/terrified about race day. But I'm really pleased with today's run, and I got a little confidence back. One more (very) long run to go--20 miles on deck for next weekend.

So were I am in Week 2 of Highest Mileage Ever Weeks (for a while, anyway). Not sure how to introduce this, so I'll just say it: I've had a pain on my left butt bone for about 13 months. The hamstring attachment point has been one huge knot of a muscle for that long. At lower mileage weeks, it was a low, dull, yet constant ache that I could pretty easily ignore. But as mileage has grown, it's gotten harder to ignore. So in January I started fulfilling my XT workout with yoga. It was love. And last week I finally bought a foam roller.

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funny sidebar: my 2-year-old rolls his whole body over the foam roller, which he calls a "steamroller" and says, "Oh, it hurts!" Can you say parrot?
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The pain has not gone away. So I decided to go for the trifecta: yoga, foam roller, and sports massage therapy. I went to my first appointment today, fully prepared for it to hurt like a sonufabitch. And it did. The therapist started and said, "well, your hamstring is tight, but I don't feel a knot. Up an inch? Oooooooh....that's a big knot." Yeah.

I learned a lot:

1. I actually have 2 injuries, both on my left side. One at the hammy attachment point, and another on the muscle between my bottom rib and the side/back of my hip. Both contribute to the pain I've been feeling. 
2. The rib/hip injury is very likely from carrying my son on my left hip all the time. The truth is, I love having my baby on my hip. But he's almost 3. He's heavy. So Momma has to cut back on carrying the kid. He rarely needs to be carried. I just like doing it. 
3. The hammy/butt bone injury is sort of a weirdo, because the surrounding muscles that should also hurt don't hurt nearly enough. 
4. I knew I was flirting with IT soreness, but I didn't realize how closely I was flirting with it. The left side is definitely tender. I've been stretching, but will be more careful about it. 

And just so I don't leave you picture-less, Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'all. 

One Week Challenge Update

Semi-daily update for my One Week Smackdown Challenge with RunningFirst. 

Today I had a tempo run on deck. It was, honestly, a lot of fun. I got to run it outside in shorts! It was 45 degrees and lovely. I ran the warm-up and cool-down on sidewalks and the faster part on a 1/3 mile outdoor track, to ensure that I wouldn't get caught at a light and get slowed down. Sometime I will really have to post pictures of the track, mostly for its view of downtown. 

Mile 1: 9:48 (warm-up)

Mile 2: 8:55

Mile 3: 8:42

Mile 4: 8:41

Mile 5: 8:41

Mile 6: 10:02 (cool-down, got caught at a light)

After I settled into the workout, I was really consistent on the mile times, and it felt good. This was definitely a confidence booster of a run. And a bonus--since I was basically the only person on the track, I got to switch directions every mile, just as a special shout-out to my ITB.