17 Mile Freeze and Tapering begins... :(

Over Friday/Saturday early morning we were hit with a snow/ice storm my way. Being the impatient little tyke that I am, I didn't want to wait til Sun to get my 17 miler in and I opted to do some snow-shoeing instead! I ran the first 8 by myself, then I met up with my new-to-marathoning friend, D, for the last 9. She's running the Flying Pig half in May and had a 9-miler scheduled for this weekend. The first 8 miles I ran around the neighborhood (hyde park) and probably 10% of the sidewalks were cleared. On top of that, cars line both sides of the street so I didn't so much have the option to run in the streets if I wanted to avoid getting hit by a car....

... ok, so at one point a smll part of me DID hope to get hit by a car. It felt like running on sand and I was getting nowhere. On top of that, I was running in real sneakers (ick) instead of my vibrams so my legs felt like bricks again.

I picked up D and we set out on the back part of the Flying pig loop, then crossed over to the middle portion of the course. If you're unfamiliar with "The Pig" this is where you hit the "Eden Park Hill." This hill is often compared to Boston's Heart Break Hill-- although the Pig is both longer and steeper! The half marathon also runs this hill, so I wanted to take her on the toughest part of the course. She made it with no problem at all!

Fast Forward....

Later that day (post-shower), icing, stretching (a little) I felt a little funny in my achilles (in the same foot that I have a strained Posterior Tibialous). I started to rub the achilles a little and flexed my foot only to hear and feel the strangest sound/feeling EVER... There is no real way to describe it but it kind of felt like a rubber band or 2 pieces of rubber that were rubbing against each other in opposite directions. It wasn't bending and flexing smoothly and making a creeking kind of sound. I know... totally weird!!! HOW do these things keep happening??? I ran 18 marathon last year without so much as a muscle ache and now I'm hurting everything on me!!! I blame winter!!!

I thought back to the run and there was  a point I had a little tightness in that achilles. We had run through some frozen puddles and my feet got wet-- as well as the compression band I had around my ankle. That had gotten frozen and I think it may have frozen my achilles area a little too. Eeek. Sooo it's still making that sound, but it's not as bad. I took yesterday off and I'll be taking today and possibly tomorrow-- good thing this is a tapering week!!!

That's right! Tapering begins today for my marathon THIS WEEKEND. I'm hoping that all my ligaments and tendons decide to function correctly and I'm giving them some serious down time this week. Stretching and icing will be my primary focus. My goal is to stay health this week and this weekend because I have February Marathon #2 next weekend in Albany, NY! My 25th state and hopefully half-way-there race (as long as my ankle coorporates).

I going to need some serious voodo or good mojo toward my ankle this week/weekend!!! Stay tuned.