My body is not happy.

I didn't run last night and got yelled at by Coach B.  I mentally and physically couldn't make my body run, and I understand that it's "Monster Month" but I needed a night to rest.   I had champagne instead. 

I went to bed feeling guilty.  I know guilt shouldn't be what I'm feeling these days since I've accomplished so much already, but I still felt bad about missing a run.  So...I set my alarm for 5:30, crawled out of bed and ran to the gym in the dark and in the misty rain.  On the way there I chuckled inside and thought to myself, wow...this will never happen again once training is over.  I am not usually a motivated morning runner, and...I've never in my life run to the gym before the sun was up.  I ran 4 miles and felt like I was back on track.

My body however, is not on track.  As I ran on the treadmill it literally felt like knife was cutting into my knee cap.  Apparently this is a tight IT band related issue, which essentially is this (according to some Runner's World article):  The kneecap pain after running is felt literally inside the knee, making you want to rip off your kneecap to get to the pain, but you simply cant do that.  Yup.  That's exactly how it felt.

So, I'm in pain today -- pretty much all over.  My body is feeling the 18 miles that we completed on Sunday and another (what was supposed to be) easy run this morning.  I don't want to be "injured" for this race so from here on out over the next 3 weeks training will be focused on foam rolling the IT band, stretching, icing, and seeing a physical therapist for knee exercises.

Found this comic in the NYTimes and thought it couldn't be more true.  That's me in the hospital bed almost 2 weeks out from race day....