UGH!

Well, up to178, again :-(.

I won't lie. Today's run was hard. I only ran 3.6 miles. Wanted to do 5 but that wasn't happening. My legs were tired and a little sore from the gym. My ankles are starting to feel sore too; but, I'm certain that is from the extra weight I've had on since December.

I haven't upped my mileage for this to be the cause. In fact, I've been running a little less mileage each week since my last marathon on Dec 18 to let myself have some recovery time from doing 3 marathons so close together before I run #4. So, I'm sure it's the weight.

I will take this weekend off from running. That gives me Friday and Saturday. May try on Sunday if I'm feeling better.  I will definitely do core strengthening over the weekend, though.

I've started back up with using MyFitnessPal to count my calories. This will keep me honest. I lost 13 pounds on that before. I think I fell off that wagon the third time I threw out my back. I went straight to comfort food. I was so tired of throwing my back out and feeling such intense pain I just collapsed, dietetically. That was what happened this past summer when I lost 12 weeks, collectively, of training from April to Sept due to my stupid back! Every time I got back on my feet and got my mileage back up I would yank my back somehow and be virtually paralyzed. This is why my marathons have sucked so bad this year.

Finally, I feel like my running is getting back in gear. Now, if I can get my weight to go with it all will be groovy. While I have been doing far better with the kinds of food I've been eating I've been eating too much, still. I haven't had a salad every day this week like I said I would but I have been eating a lot of soup. A few other slips have occurred but this is why I am using MyFitnessPal again.

Ok, I'll chat later. The struggle continues...

TTFN