God doesn't want me to exercise

Yesterday my Cho-Pat I-T Band Syndrome strap arrived in the mail, so I started wearing it right away. It's just a compression strap that goes around the leg above the knee. At least for the time being my leg is aching more but less painful, if that makes any sense. I mean, I have a continuous dull ache that wasn't there before, but I can handle going down stairs without any pain at all. I tried a run this morning and it was uncomfortable but bearable for the 3 mile distance. But my stamina is shot to hell and my quads were tired from yesterday, when I did pool jogging (I called it "water running" on FB yesterday but realized this confused people -- it's too similar to "running water" and no one is clear on why this would be anything to dread, unless you're incontinent). I'm going to have to work VERY hard, and not injure myself worse, if I'm to have any hope of running the marathon next month.

While looking up information on how to use the Cho-Pat effectively I ran across a blog from a woman who ran the Baltimore marathon last year. It was her one and only marathon, and the more I read, the more her training experience sounded EXACTLY like mine. I was excited when I read her initial reports with the Cho-Pat and saw in her archives that she had finished the marathon -- until I read her race report. I really, really hope that's not what I'm in for, or I'm doomed.

So after my run today, which was only so-so, as I said, I went for a bike ride with the Girl Scouts. It was just 6 miles each way, on the Huckleberry, so it should have been trivial. But on the way back, about a mile into it, I crossed the steel bar that joins the trail to an old railroad bridge, and it had a about a half-inch rise with a fairly sharp corner, which I nailed at full speed (I was more concerned about trying to avoid hitting poky scouts, so I didn't see it until too late). Very shortly thereafter my tire went flat. I pumped it up again, but I didn't have a spare, and it didn't hold air for very long. I finally had to get Daniel to pick me up, and the other leader went on with the girls. So I failed again. You can see why I'm not feeling very optimistic about exercise these days!