September 15th thru 22nd – 13.09 Miles Total

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

My last four runs were for maintenance, just to get the miles in and enjoy the last few weeks of Daylight Savings. Soon the sun will be setting when I get off work and I’ll either be running in the dark or before work.

I would love to be one of those disciplined creatures who are so addicted to the endorphins that my body can’t rest when it needs a fix. As it is, I do find myself craving the rush of the run and the feel of lungs that are expanded to full capacity but I can’t say that I am addicted to the run. At least not enough to drag my bones outta bed at O dark thirty.

Speaking of addiction: I have a few questions regarding pain relief.

My running focus is basically “Just Do it Regularly” and "Try to beat Last Month's Mileage". As long as I am getting regular exercise, I’m pretty happy. I don’t have to break records, place in my age group or take home any cash prizes. While I do enjoy collecting racing bibs and the occasional finisher’s medal, for me racing is just a competition with myself and a motivation to train.

I usually take it easy and work more on endurance and less on speed because it has been my experience that when I focus on speed, I end up hurting myself and I often get robbed of the joy that running gives me.

Because of my Easy-Does-It attitude, I typically don’t suffer with shin splints, plantar fasciitis, sciatic pain, tendonitis, bone fractures or any of the typical ailments that runners tend to be afflicted with.

However, as with any exercise regimen, I do feel stiffness, soreness and at times, pain. Most frequently, I have AT issues, which are most prevalent in the morning and usually work themselves out with a bit of stretching. I also feel tightness in my lower back at times, the occasional ache in my knees and stiffness in my neck and shoulders.

Typically, I try to relax and stretch. It often does the trick but sometimes it doesn’t.

With that in mind, I’m just curious about what other runners do when they feel pain and what their psych rotation is when they do something about it.

When I’m having any kind of discomfort the first thing I try to do is assess the pain and isolate the problem. If it’s the result of a run, I usually just stretch it out and try to massage it away. If that doesn’t work, I usually just work through it and keep going on with my day. If it’s stress, prayer almost always works.

If I am running after work, I try not to run too much more than 3.5 miles because I’ve found that I have trouble sleeping when I run longer distances and then have to go to bed for the night 2 hours later.

However, there are times when I do get 4 or 5 miles in at the end of the day and I find that if I take one Advil before bed, I sleep much sounder.

Curious…. Very curious.

I am *so* hyper-sensitive about becoming addicted to pain relievers. Not the substance itself, but the idea that I should pop a pill anytime I’m the least bit uncomfortable or when I want to get a good night’s sleep. So much so, that I tend to allow myself to be in pain when a single dose of Advil would set it right.

So my question is: When you have muscle aches and pains, do you work through it and tough it out? Do you take a warm bath? Do you talk your spouse into doing the back rub in exchange for “favors”? Or do you just go ahead and pop the pills? Have you ever taken Advil or even NyQuil just to get to sleep after a run?

Running Log:
September 15th – 3.01 Mile Run
September 18th – 3.55 Mile Run
September 19th – 3.06 Mile Run
September 22nd – 3.47 Mile Run