Taking a little break

After my somber post, I figured I should keep you guys in the loop about what I'm doing instead of leaving you hanging. 

Good news:

Last week I got ALL my miles in!
The week before that I only missed a couple.
Both weeks I did 12 miles on the long-run - that's definitely the farthest I've actually "run."  At the Princess Half-Marathon I walked a good portion of mile 9/10.

Bad news:

The reason I walked those parts of my half marathon was because my back was freaking out on me.
Which it is starting to do now.

I've actually been noticing lingering lower-back pain for about the last three weeks - ever since our mileage passed the 10 mile mark.  I start noticing fatigue in my core and lower-back around/after mile 8 or 9. 

My 12 mile runs were a big of a wake-up call, as I spent the last four miles dealing with very real lower-back pain.  This past Saturday, I had to stop every 100 yards or so during the last two miles to stretch out my back.  It felt like it was one wrong move away from spasming and laying me out on the pavement. 

I've emailed the coaches and team physical therapist with the Marathon Training Clinic to get their input.  For now, I've decided that taking a few days off definitely couldn't hurt.

I assume this all has something to do with the abdominal diastasis (or separation) leftover from my cesarean delivery back in 2008.  My lower-abs are still about two finger-widths apart in the center - which has me wondering if I've got the basic core strength one would need to train properly for a marathon.

I could spend all kinds of time worrying about worst-case scenarios and freaking out that this could ruin my hopes of doing a marathon on 10.10.10.  But I won't.

I started this whole journey to do something postive for my body, heart and mind.  Facing the truth about where my body is really at and doing the best at my "next step" is part of that journey.  Whether that means a few days of rest and then back into the training with some tips for developing my core strength, or whether that means readjusting my marathon timeline, I'm still learning and growing through this process.

Hanging in there...

That's how I've been responding to people when they ask that customary greeting, "how are you?"  The Congdon family has had quite a lot on our plates in the last several months.

Our church family is embarking on a new season of refocus and purpose after a very rough transition.
I've embarked on the fun adventure of starting my own business working as a consultant for Arbonne.
Ethan is in the prime stages of being ready to transition to the "big potty."
One of husband's jobs informed him they'd be cutting his hours in half starting in the fall.
Marathon training is kicking into "no really - are you really going to do this" mode.

On top of those things we've got our son's 2nd birthday, our 3rd wedding anniversary, and two trips home in June - and things get pretty dicey in the whole sleeping/eating/resting rhythm.  Daniel and I are both hardcore perfectionists and work horses.  So the last few weeks have been full of junk food on the run, late nights finishing projects and WAY messed up sleep schedules for all three of us.  No bueno.

Especially no bueno for my running.  Last week my schedule called for 14 mid-week miles (over four days) + my third 10 mile long run.  What did I accomplish?  ONE two mile run.  ONE.  The coaching team of the marathon clinic recommends cutting your long run short when you miss your mid-week miles, and then repeating that week's assigned miles over again.  I actually ended up running a water station for our group run and skipped the long run all together.  Somewhere over the course of the weekend I tweaked my back, and getting back into the groove yesterday was a bit of a challenge. 

I had another full day planned (Arbonne party, Life Work Coaching sessions, naps/lunch in there somewhere... oh dear!) but was able to squeeze my run in "before dinner" at 8pm.  Ethan fell asleep while I was out running and was done for the night.  So Daddy and I stayed up with a campfire until midnight catching up and trying to nail down a realistic schedule to help us keep our sanity.

We're going to have to make some important decisions about what's got to "give" in our current system so that we can stay focused on the most important things, take good care of each other, and not lose our minds - or our hearts!

I'm really, REALLY, hoping that marathon training isn't one of the things that has to "give" - as we've already invested over $200 in my commitment to it (sign-up fee + clinic fee).  But I've had some lingering pelvic pain and am just enough behind in the schedule that I could talk myself into quitting.  Uh oh...

I'll definitely keep you all posted.