Ouch

I have a pain in the neck. Literally. And that pain has travelled to my shoulder recently as well. Not fun. It is funny how when we are healthy, we take feeling great for granted. But boy is it noticeable when you don't have full range of motion, are in pain, and can't sleep. Like I said, not fun.

I used to get strains in my neck relatively frequently, but then switched to one of those funky Tempurpedic pillows. That thing has worked wonders, and I had not had a strained neck in years. Well, a couple weeks ago, I somehow tweaked it and had that tell-tale acute pain in the right back side of my neck. I laid off on arm weights for a week, healed up, and resumed my regular routine.

Last Wednesday when I was out running, I whipped my neck back to waive good-bye to Jake on his bus. And I immediately felt the strain return. Not the acute pain, but there. No range of motion and some pain. That was a week ago. Now it is in my shoulder and I feel like a big baby. Hoping it will improve soon. Next week is a rest week, so hopefully that will help.

Enough on that - here is last week by the numbers.

M: rest / arms & abs

T: One hour easy - 6.7 miles (8:56)

W: 1:10 with 8 x .38 miles @ tempo (7:17); .25 recoveries + 4 striders = 8.6 miles

R: One hour easy = 6.7 miles (8:58)

F: 1:15 w/ 3 x 1 mile @ tempo (7:17) + 4 striders = 9.4 miles

Sa: 6 easy (8:59)

Su: 2:20 - 15.8 (8:58). This run was a bit of a fail. Scheduled for 3 hours, but I did not get out until after James' wrestling tournament. I hadn't eaten all day and was not well fueled. Run started great, but by mile 10, my HR started spiking. I decided to run home at 15 to get a gel, water and rest for 10 minutes. Well, when I started running again, my legs were super sore and I felt crazy dizzy. So I bagged it and called it a day. Frustrating because I should have known better and fueled better. I can't expect gels to get me through a run when I haven't eaten in 20 hours. Duh.

Total = 53.3 miles (should have been closer to 60).