41 Degrees of Freedom

What would possess a man to run in shorts when it's 41 degrees outside? If you come up with something let me know because I am totally at a loss. It's freak'in cold! I did a 7 mile tempo run tonight plus a 1 mile warm-up (yea right!) and was supposed to do a 1 mile cool-down after. I made it through the 7 mile tempo run and said "screw this" and headed straight for a hot shower where I stayed for 20 minutes trying to get feeling back into my snowman-like body. I know you purists out there are saying "Not a hot shower after a run, that's the worst thing you can do", Oh yea, after all the crazy things I've done to (and put into) this body over the years I don't think this will make a dent. Plus, did I mention It's FREAKING COLD! Icing my leg after this run seems pointless.

The Panera Beacon on the Bay 25K is Saturday so I will be taking tomorrow off and then using the race as my long run. I usually do my long runs on Sunday because it works out better with my schedule. I have never enjoyed getting up early on Sunday though so it will be nice to be able to sleep in and enjoy a relaxing Sunday morning this weekend. I have always had a soft spot for Sundays. That is not to say I like them, I just find them interesting. They are both a beginning and an end and I never know if I'll be depressed or excited on any given Sunday.

I have a minor confession to make. I've been taking Ibuprofen daily. I started taking it to help reduce the swelling in my leg. Lately I have been taking 400 mg before each run and I haven't been having too much pain in my leg during the runs. I have never taken pain medicine routinely before and was honestly feeling a little concerned that I might be masking the injury in my leg with the drugs. Well yesterday I was listening to the latest edition of Phedipidations, a podcast I love, and Steve Runner, the host, mentioned that he doesn't like to take pain medicine before training runs because he wants to be able to feel any pain that might be developing so he can deal with it before it becomes a problem. This was not the main theme of the podcast, he just off-handed mentioned this and he specifically mentioned Ibuprofen then went on with the podcast about online training logs. Well, Willie being Willie, I was stopped in my tracks by this. I always try to find meaning in little things that happen so I immediately wondered why he would happen to mention something about pain medicine during a podcast about online training logs? And why would this happen when I'm having my own concerns about taking pain medicine. Of course this was a way for the running Gods to speak to Willie and let him know they are not happy with his new found drug taking. This 10 second comment by someone I have never met, was a way of awakening my subconscious and telling me that I am pushing too hard. Am I crazy? Yes, but tonight I didn't take any pills and I felt some significant pain in my leg. I just didn't feel as comfortable as I have the last few runs when I was taking the pills. So now I am totally confused about how to proceed. I'm running great but it may be the pills, I have to know the truth. We'll see how this weekend goes. I think I would rather slow down my training and deal with the pain than to continue running on pills and end up really hurt down the road.

Thanks for listening