Much Needed Rest

I think I have played it smart by skipping a couple of my runs and allowing for some rest on the ITB. I was very concerned because I know how bad a 50 mile road run is gonna hurt and I guess I have just accepted the fact it's really not gonna hurt any less unless I keep pushing thru this irritation and not make it there. I've missed my long runs the entire month, first due to strep throat and the next weekend allowing my ITB some rest. Todays 16 miler was my longest this month but I have gotten several that were 12-15 but heck I consider a 12 miler a short run nowadays :-) I did the fire road 6 today and decided when I got to the main road (it goes 1 mile on road surface till you get to the fire road again) well I thought I'd have some fun and keep less pounding on the ITB and take the horse trail that leads off it, I've been wanting to do this for awhile to get some nice downhill real trail practice and today was a great day to try it. I had a great time going up and down these little mounds that were all over, jumping rocks and wet leaf areas and a few muddy places but it didnt last but a .25 of a mile and opps I got stuck at a creek? Hmmmm there was nowhere to go and looking at the creek you couldnt just jump it to find a trail it was either go thru the creek for God knows how long or jump the creek and head thru the briars and find the road which really wasnt too far away. I chose to keep dry and headed to the road. Got a few scratches from sticker bushes getting stuck in my legs but made it to the road road and off I went. I got to the next fire road turn off and decided to head out till my Garmin hit 8 miles, I knew going on the horse trail it took off some distance but didnt know exactly how much....I also knew at mile 8 it really wasnt that much farther till I got to the other main road so that meant I was prolly only about a half mile or so from what would have been a 9 mile marker. As I turned around and headed back my tummy was rumbling a bit and at this point I was very glad that I brought a hanky (sometimes my nose runs and i get tired of using my shirt and Im not a good snot rocket person) well, needless to say when I was finished with my run I only had half a hanky left. I was so grateful cause I really didnt wanna run 8 miles on that trail without a sock :-) This trail I typically average a pace of 12:30-13 min miles and today I pulled off an average of 11:49 and I wasnt trying to run faster I was just feeling good. Weather was perfect, blue sunny skies got to be around 50 by the time I was finished. Only issues is still the right hip area, its been pretty tight and causing some tightness behind that right knee, my massage lady didnt have the time to spend on it cause we were dealing with the ITB issues and this was our first visit that someone had given me a free 30 min with her. And I loved her!!! So this week we will go for an hour and concentrate on the ITB as well as the hip to get me ready for the road marathon next Sunday. I have mix emotions about it, its a one mile loop (ha) should be a blast yes? LOL People that I have spoke to that have done it have said it wasnt too bad, my intentions for doing it were that I would have support every mile and I am hoping to run it as a training type run and not get caught up in the hype of a race, and then another part of me says go break 5 hours because in all these years of doing triathlons, I've never really trained trained for the running, I've trained for hours not distance to get me thru the Ironman's, my best Ironman marathon is around 6 hours and all the other marathons I have done were kinda accidental, I got into Nike SanFran Marathon on lottery and it was only a couple weeks after Ironman Louisville so I wasnt trained to run run a marathon I was trained to just get through a marathon after biking 112 miles and swimming 2.4. I also got into NYC marathon and that lottery was the day after Orthopedic Surgeon number 3 told me I shouldnt be running and would prolly need a new knee by December of 2011- at this point I was still not running yet due to the 3 micro fractures Ortho number 1 performed on the knee but I was gonna do it no matter what. Another friend got into it as well and I promised to stick with her but had no intentions of going as slow as what she needed to and that was unbearable but we finished. I dont have any hard feelings towards her for this but I doubt I promise to stick with someone at a marathon again. I also did Myrtle Beach marathon and that was thrown in there and didnt train to run it as a marathon either....these past couple months I have actually been training to run, not training to run/walk if that makes sense to some of you endurance freaks out there. So Im torn, but I also have the Shamrock full marathon in March and the Athens Ohio Marathon the first of April as training run before the 50 miler that is in mid april. In all honesty I think the hardest one to hold back on is going to be the Shamrock, its gonna have the most entrants, the most crowd support and Yuengling is a freakin sponsor!! I dont party much anymore cause I hate the way it makes me feel the next day,,,,I am an all or nothing person and I give everything I do 100% and that included drinking! Since I'm going by myself maybe it wont be as tempting??? HA