"keep off the pole."

good news this week people! i went to see the doctor because the weekend before last i had both a long run AND a pole dancing lesson in the same day, and the next day there was a pesky pain in my shin that neither went away right away nor bruised up. being slightly paranoid, i make a doctor's appointment just to be safe. i kept running, but carefully. on tuesday i ran into coach lisa right before the big hill, and we were reminiscing of the time i switched to the 1/2 and then the afternoon before the race i switched to the full and ran in record time (you can read about that miracle run here if you are so inclined). she also chatted me up the big hill which of course was a very welcome distraction.

my doctor asked what was wrong and i prefaced my tale of shin pain and stripper poles that i knew it sounded silly but i really didn't know if the pain was serious or not. the laughed, made me hop around a bit, sat me on the table, pressed around, moved my foot this way and that (all no pain) and sent me on my way with the sage advise to "keep off the pole". she explained if i didn't have pain while running i was probably okay and if i felt any of that i should just call and we'll go straight to bone scan. sounds good to me.

the next morning i ran again. it was hot and pollen-y and i felt kinda heavy in the legs. oh and there was coach lisa again! that was about the extent of the excitement for the run.

so then this weekend my bff from college was coming to visit, and i planned to do my long run, but then her husband also came, who is *also* one of my good friends from college, and really between friday pm and sunday afternoon when they left there was no time between the eating and walking and socializing. (we did walk a lot though!)

on sunday when i dropped those friends off, i picked up my hs friend mel, her husband and daughter near penn station and walked and walked and ate and played in the park. around 3:30 i was unable to resist the urge to have a beer and by the time i got back to brooklyn it was 6:00 so no run for me on sunday.

i got up this morning and intended to run for 1.5 hours. i had checked out the schedule and next week everyone is running shorter (for 1.5 hours) and so figured i'd just flip flop the runs and run short this weekend. i headed out towards the brooklyn bridge planning to do a wide loop, but about 2 and a half miles in suddenly started getting terrible cramps. ug. i tried to run through, but to no avail. at smith and 9th i made the decision to jump on the train and call it a day. i was a bit bummed but if i haven't learned by now that one run doesn't make or break you, i've learned nothing at all :)

tuesday's run: 4.4 miles
thursdays's run: 3.9 miles
today's run:4.0 miles
season mileage to date:101.4
up next:another 4-ish miles tomorrow