13 days to the Chicago Marathon!  This morning I rested and slept in, until 6am.  My back is still a bit tight and stiff in places, and I think a little worse after my 4 mile run yesterday, so decided to take it easy this morning.  My intention is to exercise tonight, late in the

14 days to the Chicago Marathon!  3 days into my back injury, and, it is feeling much better!  Enough so that I was able to run today, which is awesome!  On the one hand, I had about 20 miles planned for this weekend and only ended with 4, but on the other hand, at least

15 days to the Chicago Marathon! And I am still a bit down for the count (back spasm yesterday), but it is not nearly as bad as I feared, or as bad as I've had it in prior back episodes. Really counting my blessings. I stayed home from work yesterday, but was not relegated to

16 days to the Chicago Marathon!  And in the wee hours of this morning, the other shoe dropped.  Severe back spasm in the night, and I'm down for the count.  I predicted this in my post just yesterday: "Third, my back is very tight for some reason, which makes me nervous.  I’m concerned that I

17 days to the Chicago Marathon!  Decided to rest this morning.  First, my right pinkie toe is still a big fat mess.  I snipped out almost the entire old nail, drained the blister again, and am hoping for the best.  Yesterday, it was very painful to walk in shoes, and today it is thankfully much

18 days to the Chicago Marathon!  Wheee - this daily blogging thing is fun... So since Sunday, my right pinkie toe has been bothering me.  Generally speaking, my toes are a mess and hideous, but that one in particular is bad, and was uncomfortable since the run Sunday.  Last night I decided to try to

19 days to the Chicago Marathon!  And I have a lot to talk about today... 1) Mostly had a rest day yesterday, after the 20 miles on Sunday.  Felt good, no unusual pain or difficulties.  I did have a softball game last night, which was fantastic.  I had a particularly good game and great contributions

20 days to the Chicago Marathon! And I will spend it by recovering from my 20 miles yesterday.  I'm feeling pretty good today.  My slightly out-of-whack left shoulder and lower back are feeling better.  Also, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of muscle soreness from the run yesterday - little quad soreness, ankle pain

21 days to the Chicago Marathon!  And today I marked it by running 20 miles, my last long run before the big day.  Today was the 18 mile NYC Marathon Tune-Up race in Central Park.  I added 2 miles to the start of the race to get to 20. No sugar-coating here, the run was