Got Any Collateral?

4:15 AM:  You guess it, the alarm goes off.  Last Monday I slept through my alarm, which at the time was a nice, melodious harp.  Today, an air-horn. 

I'm UP, I'm UP! 

Why am I up so early, I wondered. 

Because sacrifice is the collateral. 

And I really want to meet my goals, which means execute all of my planned training.  Since I work two jobs, 4:15 in the morning it is.  

I wrapped my two problem toes (blisters) in bandaids, got dressed, threw my toe shoes on and went out to do my warm ups.  My hamstrings have been a bit cranky and I was very curious to see how they'd feel doing lunges and squats.  If they complained I was going to take an easy 4 mile jog instead of my planned 6 mile tempo run. 

But all was well.  I had the same rule in mind for my warm up mile.  I started slow and built up to running about 8:30 mm pace as I finished the mile.  The tempo was supposed to be four miles at 6:58 mm.  How does SmartCoach come up with 6:58 and not 7:00 ... If you know where my missing socks are, or the location of the back of the remote to the DVD player, then you know that answer, too.

I got through the first 3/4 of the mile okay, slowly building from a 7:15 to a 7:00 pace.  All was well until I hit the hill then the tightening started.  I finished the hill and went down the other side, hoping it'd loosen up.  I finished the mile slowing down, but still trying to move quickly.  No dice.  I jogged home paying attention to the left hamstring, trying to stay within the safe zone. 

Now six months ago I would've run through the pain and caused serious damage.  Today I don't think I did.  I'm on ice now and will keep it compressed at work.  I'll be nursing it along for the next two weeks or so I'm afraid.  It sucks because I have a 4 mile trail race Sunday. 

I'm afraid that this may be the kind of thing I fight regularly.  I had a spinal injury about 14 years ago that almost left me partially paralyzed.  It weakened a few things in my right leg and right foot, so of course the left side is always hurting after a run, due to compensation.