Its only been like 12 hours since I wrote, but I wanted to report that I survived the first half of the week successfully. My back is feeling slightly better, its not as painful as it had been and still feels better while working out and stretching. It was definitely a muscle strain of some sort, since the normal course of these things is that it will tighten up as it heals and its important I keep it flexible.

I got my 5 miler in on the treadmill this morning. There is one fine thing about working out at the gym, and guys, you know what I mean. I’m not trying to be a pig, because i’m not like that, but it certainly keeps you inspired to keep working harder and longer. Either way, the workout went good, although i’m very tired at this point. I haven’t done an almost 20 mile half week since last year, i’m really pushing it. These are the types of weeks I was missing back in Feb/March during my last training, these make the difference. I’m to a point that 5 miles feels like nothing, even 10 miles felt like nothing yesterday, which is where I need to be 3 weeks before the marathon.

Regardless, I feel like i’ve earned my day off tomorrow…… this is the same feeling I had on Monday after my long weekend of training. I needed a day off. There is a big difference between me now and about 2 months ago. I used to take days off even when i didn’t even earn them (running crappy, slow runs, not caring). It was the whole transition thing I guess, but I’m over it and looking ahead to the great things ahead …..