AM - 7.3 miles up to work. I would say there is a less than 1% chance I'm going to run the 5K tomorrow. I know its possible to move up in the circuit again by racing, but its just not worth risking blowing this "niggle" into something major. On that note, and mainly for my own record keeping purposes, I want to type out the etiology of my current hamstring/back issues and thought process about what I should do about it. It goes back a month... After warming up for the TOU Marathon, while putting my clothes in my drop bag, I had a crazy back spasm. The whole thing tightened up. After about 30 seconds (but what felt like 30 minutes) it relaxed and I was fine. I'm not sure if this had anything to do w/ the hamstring issue that followed, but its worth remembering (even though it wasn't worth writing in my race report). 15 miles into the marathon my right hamstring locked up and started to hurt. If I was doing a workout, I would have pulled the plug and stopped. But for obvious reasons, stopping wasn't an option at that point. Unless my hamstring ripped off the bone, I wasn't dropping out! The hammy was noticeable for 5-6 days, improving every day. By the following weekend, I didn't notice it anymore. Andrea cautioned me that "even though the symptoms are gone, that doesn't mean its healed." I knew she was right - its not like I got tight in the final sprint... I ran hard for another hour after pulling it. For the next 3+ weeks, no problems. I didn't push any runs too hard, but did some light workouts and I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then I felt a little twinge towards the end of my tempo run on Tuesday morning. By the evening, it reverted back to post-marathon week status. The Fittest State double last Saturday was probably enough to weaken it, and the tempo run put it back over the edge. A couple days later with a day off, I'm feeling better again. But... I know its not healed. And I also think I pulled something in my back, probably due to compensating for the hamstring. That's what is really bothering me right now. It will probably feel better in a couple days, but I'm afraid of letting this become a recurring issue. I'm not sure where I go from here. I could see what happens in the next couple days, but the timeline is getting tight because if I'm going to run Monterey Bay, I need to start doing some real workouts ASAP. I refuse to go into it with the "I'm in 1:07 shape and that's good enough" attitude. The obvious option is to just shut it down for a bit, take some time off, and build back up slowly. That's the smarter/safer option, and probably the best thing in terms of setting myself up for an improvement next year. I think the main thing keeping me from making the "smart" decision is that to be completely honest, I feel somewhat insecure about what I've really accomplished this year. Its been a good year, but I never had that breakthrough I wanted. I felt like I was ready to smash through some barriers in March... but it didn't happen in Boston and then I've just maintained the same level since then. I'm sort of sitting on a plateau right now (albeit a very high plateau, which I am grateful for)... but I don't want to be stuck at 1:06/2:22 forever... I know I'm capable of a lot more than that. Jeez, I should have prefaced this with "Dear Diary" :-) | 
