No setbacks?

I wrote in my last post about the importance of no setbacks right now. What I didn't realize at the time was that I'd caused a minor setback in my 5K on Thursday night. My hamstring felt tight all day Friday and Saturday and it caused me to quit in my 50 miler yesterday after 13.5 miles, done in just under 4 hours.

After my friend Melanie finished the 50K, she yelled at me for being stupid enough to run the 5K on Thursday night. I'd already decided earlier in the day that what she was saying was true. I tried to rationalize it to Melanie by saying that I'd signed up for the 5K long before I got hurt. It was a team thing. But, the truth is my team was slow - my 26:40 had me almost 5 minutes ahead of both of my teammates. We finished 27th of 57 teams in the mixed-sex, non-profit company category. There isn't a lot of recognition for that result, so I definitely pushed too hard for no good reason.

Early in the run yesterday, I could tell that things were still tight. What was most disconcerting was the fact that not only was my stride compromised on the downhills, but the hamstring attachment point was bothering me on the ups. A week ago, I'd climbed over 4500 vertical feet and had no issues at all in that part of the leg. As I approached the start/finish area at mile 13.5, I realized that continuing was likely to aggravate the injury more. It was safest and smartest to call it a day. I'm still in good shape. WS is going to be very difficult given my paucity of running miles, but it's better to be under-trained than injured. I need to recover.

Because I'd car-pooled to the start with a friend who was running the 50 miler, I had a lot of time to kill. I called my wife and whined for a little bit. I took a shower. I called my wife back and apologized for my bad attitude. I told her I now had a choice to make. There was a lot of free beer and I wasn't driving. I could spend the day spectating and drinking the free beer. But, the beer was not going to be helpful in any way for WS. So, I had some food, I cheered on friends, I socialized, and I drank water and diet cola. I'm glad that I made that correct decision.

I'm heading out for a 2-hour bike ride shortly and then I'm going to mow the lawn.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. I head to my new job on a full-time basis. I'll miss my co-workers at my old job, and I'll especially miss working with my wife, but I'm excited by the challenge of my role in a small company.

Congrats to all my friends who had good races yesterday. My friend Joe took 45 minutes off his time from last year - a great accomplishment at age 60, and he won his 55+ age group. Jamie ran a few minutes slower than he hoped but was very happy with his effort the last 10 miles. After fighting an injury earlier this winter, Jamie has rebounded to be in excellent shape and I'm excited to see how he'll do at WS. My local friend Jeff finished a few minutes ahead of Jamie. Jeff is skipping WS this year because he has a new baby. He and I trained together some last year and he's in great shape right now. So while having to skip WS is disappointing, he had a great race. And, Melanie did a great job in the 50K. She is stubbornly persistent and weathered the early afternoon rainstorms very well.