Treadmill Blues

Well, it's been a while since my last real post.....so here goes. The past several weeks have been full of good eats and 'minimized' workouts. I was either dealing with sick kiddos during the week of Thanksgiving, or I was dealing with a sick Curto.

Yep, I caught the bug and it sucked. I was planning to do a race in East Peoria on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I was a sick little boy....I did however, manage to win a nice hand in the annual Thanksgiving Poker Tournament. I spent most of the week after Thanksgiving recovering (from the sickness....and from poker night). I was still able to get a few decent workouts in, but something still wasn't right.

For some reason, my side cramp keeps coming back and it's having a serious impact on my running. It's no ordinary side cramp either....I can usually run through the standard cramp...but these are painful. Very painful. I think what I'm experiencing is known as a side stitch. It's a sharp pain just under my rib cage on the right side of my body. It sucks. Sooo....I did a little research, talked to some resident experts (one told me it might be a flesh eating disease?)....and the last couple of runs have been much better. I still feel the stitch, but it's not as painful. To remedy....I'm doing some yoga-like stretches before my runs, I'm cutting back on my pre-run snack/drink combo, and I'm trying hard to focus on deep breaths during runs. So far, things seem to be going well. Let's hope it is just a side stitch and not a flesh eating disease. :)

Also, while I've had to cut back on the running....I've modified the strength training a bit. Just to mix things up over the past week or so, I've decreased my reps and increased my weights. I think I might keep mixing things up every couple of weeks or so.

Monday: 5.18miles, 40 min, 7:44 pace and BIG chest

Tuesday: 7 miles, 58:10, 8:27 pace (bad side stitch), and abs

Wednesday: Planned to do a 5 mile run, but the side stitch came back hard core within 10 minutes of running....so I did about 15 minutes and then switch to the evil stairmaster for 15 minutes of torture....then did BIG lats and back

Thursday: REST (not feeling great)

Friday: 6 miles, 49:39, 8:13 pace, and BIG arms & shoulders (yeah!)

Saturday: Christmas shopping...ALL day (scored some sweet clothes...and bought the wife a new coat!)

Sunday: 2 miles 17:30? (slow....focusing on side stitch breathing....then had to make a quick latrine break), got back on the treadmill and did 10 miles, 83:33, 8:20 pace (YEAH side st(b)itch!!)

Total Mileage: 31.x
Weigh-In: 157.4?? (seriously....how did I drop more weight?)

I'm hoping that I'm completely finished with this sick and weak feeling!!!