Back to Nice and Easy

Isn’t it amazing how quickly weekends come and go and how slow the work week seems to drag on? That is how this weekend was for me, it flew by. Saturday I ran 12 miles and held a nice 9:30 pace for those 12 miles. I paid the price though, because later on that day I was in some serious pain. My chest was killing me, I couldn’t move without excruciating pain. It felt like someone dropped a weight on my chest and crushed me.


As the day wore on, the pain increased. Luckily I was able to relax the rest of the afternoon because my brother in law was making my sister and I our birthday dinner. Since the rest of the family was sick and couldn’t get together he made us this awesome dinner. Steak, shrimp, artichoke, and mashed potatoes. It was awesome and hit the spot as I was famished from my run earlier in the day.

As I awoke Sunday morning, I was feeling stiff, but nothing like how I was feeling Saturday night. I decided I would head out and try to run with some of my friends who were planning on running 15 miles. I wasn’t too sure how far I was going to go, or if my body would loosen up, but I thought I would give it a shot. I find it interesting how this injury just flares up when ever and then disappears just as quickly.

The first 4 miles were really uncomfortable. I was short of breath because of my chest wall pain and my body was taking it’s time in warming up. My friend noticed how uncomfortable I was and noticed my shallow breathing. But as the miles ticked on I began to feel better and with that my pace quickly picked up. By mile 6 I knew I would be running 15.

At the turn around I took in a Gu and s-cap and started back down. I flew for the next few miles holding the lead. It felt great to open it up. I was holding 8:30 pace for a few miles which has been rare for me so I was excited. But just as quickly as that pace came it slowly dwindled away. My back felt like it was locking up and my breathing became shallow again. But I was still holding a 9:00 min pace and occasionally dipped to a 9:30. As I hit the 15 mile marker I was struggling catching my breath, not because I ran to hard but because it hurt. I walked it off and the rest of my body was feeling strong. I didn’t have any back pain after this run; I wasn’t doubled over from the pain I was feeling like I normally felt after a good solid effort for 15 miles. That totally surprised me.

For the week I managed to log 39 miles which is pretty good considering I have only been running 4 days a week. I can only imagine how many miles I would have logged if I ran 6 days. Monday is my normal rest day and I plan on resting, I had an appointment with Dr. Chu from Elite Spinal and Sports Care.

Dr. Chu worked on my left side rib cage which was extremely point tender. I also told him that it really hurts my chest and back when I sneeze or cough. I haven’t told anyone that. He may want for me to get a chest x-ray to rule out a fracture in my rib cage if this pain continues. I am hoping I don’t have a fractured rib. This is the second time I have seen him and the first time he was able to eliminate some of my pain which is probably why I was able to run those long runs.

 A majority of my tenderness lies between the number 4 and 5 rib and he traced it all the way from my chest to my back. Pretty amazing I think. I am able to run tomorrow and then e-mail him with how the run went and I have another appointment lined up for Friday. I am suppose to be smart about my running and play it safe when need be.

 Looking forward to tomorrows run with Trailmomma. I will probably take it easy and on the turnaround she will incorporate some speed work. It is suppose to be 100 degrees tomorrow. What is going on with this crazy weather? First the low 80’s all weekend and now this.