Coach Jen B

Nothing ever goes as planned.  Right?  This past spring I was feeling great, at the peak of my marathon training, when I received the notification that my application for the Great Cranberry Island Ultra had been accepted.  I had pretty big plans for this Ultra.  It's a BQ'er.  I thought that after Sugarloaf, I'd have time to recuperate then come back stronger to BQ on a super course.  Funny how my heel had other plans in store for me after I jumped off the paddle board.  I had finally wrapped my mind around being able to complete Saturday's 50k with a walk/run, spend a great day with friends and family, feast on a well earned lobster dinner, and camp out on the island that night.  I even wrote the blog post about it, yesterday. Then, shortly after writing that post, I left to pick my daughter up at daycare.  As we were leaving, I bent over to tie her shoes, and POP!  Then instant pain that brought me to the floor (with tears), and ins...

I'm not really sure if I should even do this race on Saturday.  GCI  I have a ton of self doubt going on.  Have I trained enough?  Do I have what it takes to actually complete this thing?  50K?  Are you kidding me?  I've been injured for the past 3 weeks.  I must be insane to think I can do it.   There is an option of an early start - if my pace is going to be slower than 13:30 min/mile.  Hmm... I just don't know.  I just don't know what my body is going to be capable of.  I've never done anything over 26.2 miles and now I'm going to take on 31.1?   My training up to this point Running was going really well until the end of June.  Then all hell broke loose and I was in pain.  I experienced some pain on some runs, changed up my shoes.  Then had a really speedy run in some fun shoes I was testing out and not I'm officially injured.  See that 48 miles?  Not so sure that's Ultra ...

What's been going on with me.  The short story - I'm officially injured and have been banned from running for 2 weeks by my PT. The long story: A few weeks back we went paddle boarding. I lost my balance and fell off the paddle board and as luck has it, I landed on a huge rock, with my heel.  Awesome.  I kept running.  At first it didn't hurt.  I complained to my chiro when I saw her and she adjusted me, but it wasn't working.  Then I aborted a long run - supposed to be 20+ but stopped at 7.5 miles and called Ward to rescue me.  I continued to run.  Sometimes achy, sometimes pain free.  Then I complained to my chiro again and she said it was time to see a physical therapist.  I continued to run.  Again, sometimes achy, sometimes pain free.   This past Saturday I ran 12 miles mostly pain free (except for weird twinges along my 3rd and 4th metatarsals).  Then Sunday, I ran 1 miles on the treadmill and those twinges...

Hello July 1st!  Summer is in full swing now, and I am really enjoying getting up at 6:30 or 7 and knowing that I've already slept in for hours.  Awesome!   I am also loving running in the morning, not in the dark, during times that I would normally have to be at school.  This change is so refreshing and liberating.   Sweaty Mess 6 miler this morning - holy humid! And I am loving spending all of this time with my kids.   What I haven't really liked is that my ITB hasn't been very happy with me.  And now the arch of my foot has been sore.   I am seeing my chiropractor weekly now.   And I'm less than a month away from my first 50k.  Keeping this in mind, here's my June mileage: Miles run:   120 (Ward had 119!  Woohoo!  I beat him.) - lower mileage, but I'm not going to push it! Miles biked:   118 (I am really loving my bikes - indoor and road) - probably my highest mileage biking ever!  Ma...