Oh Everest, My Everest

I was cruising 43 things for some motivation and eventually found my way to the ironman site. I learned some interesting facts there:

Your mind can improve your exercise results, says two recent studies. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that women who believed they had a high tolerance for muscle pain reported less discomfort during cycling tests than women who claimed a low threshold.

In a Harvard University study, when hotel maids were told their work met the Surgeon General's recommendations for an active lifestyle, the women experienced decreases in blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index a month later. But the control group, who didn't receive the information, saw no such health improvements.

My right calf was making an awful popping sound on Monday so I decided not to run on it for a few days. Luckily it has not popped since Monday. Maybe my efforts to "think my calf into relaxing" helped? Could be that I just needed a little rest, too. Perhaps I'll go on a final 2-miler at marathon pace before I get on the plane and make sure to stretch better than I did after the 10-mile challenge. That ought to do it.

Clearly, as the article suggests, if I just think good thoughts about running the marathon, it will be a quick and painless experience! Right? Right??

Labels: body part making bad sounds, calf, LA marathon, taper