Sunday, December 09, 2007

Greetings from Wichita Falls,TX

not from the start line of the White Rock Marathon. This is the first Rock I'm sitting out since I started this little side venture and it feels very weird to not be approaching the Turtle Creek western-themed waterstop manned by Luke's Locker right now. Instead, I'm sitting in a Comfort Inn in Wichita Falls, preparing for a hockey tournament in a bit. BTW, call me spoiled by the Marriott and/or a corporate apartment, but this particular Comfort Inn is lacking a bit in the "comfort" area, if you get my drift. But, I do have to say that with the weather that rolled in last night of cold and wet (high in the lower 50s, expecting to drop throughout the morning, coupled with drizzle, rain and thunderstorms) that I'm a little glad to not be toeing the line today.

We did go to the Marathon Expo yesterday, where I spent at least an hour and a little more $$, trying to motivate myself to get back into the marathon groove. I did pick up a couple of Bondi bands, which I have been wearing pretty much nonstop since then. One is in my signature cornflower yellow, with "26.2" across the front, which will be henceforth part of my standard training attire. The other is in the second most perfect color evah, burnt orange, with "I'd Rather Be Running" stamped on it - this will be my "off-track" standard, if you will. Just a couple of reminders of what I am and what I need to focus on in the next few months.

I also picked up a 2008 race calendar, so I need to scan through it and pick another spring race (after Austin), probably in April, and an early fall race. I also picked up some tri-related brochures, with info on training camps and swimming camps. Gotta get back into that groove as well.

The other thing I did was get my gait analyzed, at least superficially. I do this weird pull-back thing with my left arm that twists my upper body withe every stride, and I have a definite Frankenstein-monster-ish thud on the right side when I step down. Even with fresh legs, I have a full mid-foot plant, which was plainly obvious, and I know that as soon as I get any amount of tired I start flat-footing it bigtime. I could see very clearly once they pulled it up on the video screen what all the problems with my stride are (and we're not even talking about the monster thigh issues at this point, but that's another post entirely... sigh) and why I have so much trouble with my lower back aching. So I'm going into the sports chiro place on Tuesday to have a more thorough look-see. I've been meaning to find another place with a more sports performance-oriented focus, but just haven't found the time, so this was a perfect opportunity. so even though I'm not running today (and hopefully passing the 10K mark by about right now...), I still got a lot out of the expo. I had to find things to motivate me there, to get me back on track, because my initial feelings when we walked in were those of great sadness and regret that I wasn't, that I'm not, ready to run a full marathon right now. But that time will come again, in February, and I'm not letting it fall away from me again.

So, there. Gotta go -- we're doing the sweep of the room and checking out to head to the rink.
Later, and good luck to all the WR'ers.

1 comment:

Vickie said...

Hopefully you get some good from the chiropractor. I go to one regularly, and it helps me immensely as well.