Rest
I toyed with the idea of getting back up on the horse, but my body had a better idea: REST. And so I did. Lots of walking all day, but no running.
Monday
Distance - 6.2
Pace - 9:44
I didn't mean to run this as fast as we did. In fact, I *thought* we really dragged it out at first. After looking at the Garmin app, not so much. We kept it pretty much at 10 from the beginning, even while chatting. The legs felt really dead, though. The nice thing about that was that I stuck right with Kathleen and Michele, so I got to hear all the good chatter. :) But no strides, and no kicking up the pace too much until much further into the mileage. Usually, Mondays just come light and fast, and they feel like the beginning of a marathon. I pretended that this might be what 6.2 at the end of the marathon could feel like. (seeing the pace after, one should be so lucky. :) )
Tuesday
Distance - 6.2 + 3ish run/walk
Pace - 10:08 +10:30ish
I had every intention of going out for a 10K run. Unfortunately, Michele was up for 10 MILES. Um .. why? Well ... cuz ...
To date I haven't really upped my weekday miles; we were above what was called for to start, and what I am doing is really all that fits. and I for sure don't like upping my mileage in the evening. So I met M about 20 minutes into her run. We ran around basically back and forth at Fowler, until the sun finally began to give some mercy, and allowed for the route out past the highway. I lost Michele at some point behind me. I knew she eventually was going to head out to pick up a kid, so I did my own thing from there. Still not sure what I wanted, I just went out until I actually hit 10K, and then started run/walk back for fun (and Pokemon). It ended up that I was actually still 3 miles from my car. OOPS. So it was like 3 more at maybe a 10:30 pace over all. Go me. :)
Wednesday
Lordy, why must ALL. THE. STRESS. be falling on my head during the most physically draining week of my life??? Work is a zoo. Long-term solutions are like needles in hay stacks. I walked into the house Wednesday night totally drained, got in the car to run Emily and carpool bud up to the gym, then fed other child (fortunately just pulled up and bought food; no Martha Stewart points these days), and arrived home for the day at 8. Down for a nap at 8:30, awake at 10, back down at 11:30. Infant schedule style again. Walked from 10 - 10:30 to get my 10,000 steps, and that was all the XT I can account for. Spent the last hour of the night prepping for speed work on the mill at LA Fitness in the morning, and then read myself to sleep. That last bit is a win. Reading something other than resumes. I *will* return to book club at the end of October. I miss my "other" friends, and October is costume month, so no excuses. I bought like the next 7 month's worth of book picks, too. That should help!! ;) My daughter once said that if adults got grades, I'd have a C- in book clubbing. Bahaha. Right now, its more like a D-. (Not an F, because I still love my book club, and I know they love me. That has to count for a little bit! :) )
And Bill .. who is Bill?
So anyway, dragging ass and feeling the drain.
Thursday
Distance - 1WU, 3 x 2 mile repeats with 800 m recovery, 1 CD
The "I do not want to do this f@#$%!^ work out" theme continues!
I walked out of the house at 6 am feeling as drained as I did leaving work Wednesday night at 6pm. No more rested whatsoever. Maybe even starting to feel the beginnings of a (most likely phantom) cold. So how the heck am I supposed to get in 9ish miles and an entire day of work???
BUT .. I *DID* it! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Small victory cheer. Done is done.
The pace was not my usual "I love speedwork on treadmills" effort. In fact, I walked half my WU mile, and even during the 2nd .5 that I ran at about 10:10, I was already 'noping.' "This isn't going to work. My legs feel like they've never run a day in their lives. Why is .1 feeling so long? I am supposed to be able to run 26.2, how am I already glued to the display distance at .3 miles of running" Yuck. Somehow, I convinced myself to run the first interval: get one in, and you'll have a solid (not so solid) 5K in at least. Plus a run tomorrow, and you are still kinda meeting "beginner marathon trainee" expectations. Well, it felt HARD to kick up the pace; I did one mile at 6.4 speed. (My mile repeats that started with 6.8 and kicked up from there felt like a walk in the park compared to these. Why???). Then after one mile, I'd start popping up the speed every .1 of a mile. That part was fun, distracting, and almost made me forget phantom cold / tiredness feeling. But again, still nothing like mile repeats the week before. I was ready to quit again, but more "conversations" with the brain: walk the recovery, see how you feel after that. Recovery finished .. and of course, feeling recovered soooo: "Lets get one more interval in. After that, you can say it was "most of the work out." Maybe even run the final interval at OCEE tonight at some point, and at least you can call it completed as scheduled." Second interval felt better. I was warmed up by now, and playing with speed again, the last mile gave me the same boost. I was completely ready to get off the mill now; I could be in earlier to work, and clear more of my desk today. But I told myself: come on, do you really want to short your work out on peak week?? This is the LAST BIT of effort that really counts. After Saturday, the hay is in the barn. Think about how GOOD it feels when you're able to say you did what you were supposed to, versus when you spend all day feeling guilt and planning over how you'll make up something missed." The compromise: go back to 6.4 start for 9:05 average pace." That worked, and my last mile was probably the fastest of all to make up for the first mile slower than each of the previous first miles."
So some days, running sucks for no good reason. You're tired, and that tiredness just builds. Its all you can do to just run through the motions, nothing diminishes the "I'd rather not" thoughts, and you feel every dang tenth of a mile until you can stop. But I am banking on the idea that if I just give it whatever I've got left now, I will get back more than if I hadn't. That will be enough. (probably more than most, right??) When I first started, I thought: man, its like I've never run a day in my life. By the end of the work out, having watched folks come on come off machines and now being surrounded by all new people who maybe were running for like 15 minutes, or staring at me for doing my THIRD hard 2 miles, I felt like: yes, come what may, I am a distance runner, and even if you can't call it on seeing me, or on watching me run my warm up mile, by the end of an entire work out, I bet anyone would give me the title. So boom. (little boom, not BOOM. But boom enough.)
Me and Eminem got this!
By midday, I was back to myself, phantom cold gone, and by afternoon, I was babysitting the "tato," (RF's baby) which honestly was the best thing that happened all day .. heck maybe all week thus far. I had forgotten the mantra my mother-in-law taught me when I had babies, and she'd come over. "If I am ever having a rough day, there's nothing better than spending a little quality time with an infant." Revived, human again Judy ready to tackle#4onFriday at Riverside, and a "Very. Important. Conversation." tomorrow! *^_^*
Friday
Distance - 4 miles easy
Pace - 9:40
I got the best present this morning from the Chicago Marathon folks. I got moved up in corrals to "G." FINNNNNNAAAALLLLLLLY! :) They had noted that you could change your expected finish time until 8/16, and that then they would reassign corrals (assuming they weren't full) by 8/25. August 25th came and went with out word. And I didn't know if that meant G was full, or if it meant they hadn't gotten to it yet. In the real world, this shouldn't matter much. But I started to stress it for no real good reason. But after obsessing a little over it (because there is no 4:30 pace group in H), they finally said they'd made the update, and when I checked my status, BOOM. G! Yippy.
That's the kind of present that you get for waking up as scheduled at 5:40 to be at the River by 6:15. Woo. And the run was fab too. Easy out, pretty conversational back, and a little kick at the end. Perfect.
Total: 51! (including Saturday)
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