On Friday, Cathie and I ran 11 miles at the gym.  When we were done, a trainer she knows came up to chat.  I was just stretching out a bit and eventually he points at me and says, "She has tight glutes" Um, excuse me?  So I told him that I was having problems with my hip and he said that he has seen me in the gym running and noticed that I "...have a bit of a giddy-up" in my run. Ha!  Well that's just awesome!  He initially thought it was either my knee or foot but then decided it must be tight glutes/hips.  I find it so interesting that he got all this from my running form.  He is right though...I've certainly got an issue that I need to fix or at least find a very large band-aid for the marathon!

I've never been good about stretching so I am trying to incorporate that into my routine.  Also, I've gotten into yoga.  And yoga, I firmly believe, is going to be my miracle cure!  That and the Run Less, Run Faster method of only 3 runs per week.


And if Sunday is any indication, the added stretching and yoga is helping! I planned to run 17 miles and because of nasty cold/snow/slick roads, I headed down to my basement treadmill at 9:00 Sunday morning.  I finally found a movie at 9:30 that was scheduled to run until noon which was perfect.  I ended up getting hooked on the movie (In Her Shoes) so when I got to the 17-mile mark at 11:35, I decided to keep on running so I wouldn't miss the ending.  Yes, a sane person would just slow the treadmill way down to 3.0 and walk until the movie ended but no one every called marathon runners sane, trust me on that one.  Plus I felt good.  Felt real good.  My hip was chirping at me but it wasn't horrible pain or anything I felt I needed to stop for.  By the time the movie ended at noon, I was 19.5 miles in and who stops at 19.5??  I'm really excited that I got 20 miles in. It was a huge confidence booster considering I haven't even officially started the 16-week training plan. 


After the run, instead of getting right into the shower and then on to other things like I used do, I spent a good 20 minutes stretching out.  Sunday night we went to a Superbowl party and I stood for 3 hours which had me a bit worried about what Monday morning would bring.  I'm happy to say that I'm not sore AT ALL this morning.  I went to Body Pump class and did choose to use lower weights for the squats but got through it all and felt totally fine.  Yay for stretching and yoga!  And for only 3 runs per week.  Apparently that is just what an 'older'...cough cough....marathon runner needs!