Week 7 of 12: Half Training Report

T: 4.5 m run
W: 3 m run
R: 4.5 m run (skipped)
Sa: Race for the Cure 5k

Well, after the horrible Sunday 7 miler last week, Monday's rest day was much needed. I was thinking the week's runs would seem like a breeze after 7 miles, but Tuesday's 4.5 m run was just brutal! My legs were tired; I was out of breath the whole time, brutal! I was so discouraged. It should have seemed easier after completing 7 miles; right?

I did Wednesday's 3 miler on a treadmill. It wasn't much better. Discouragement hit an all time low! I got on the message boards at Runner's World to try and figure out what's going on. Are my legs just tired from increased mileage? Is my pace too fast (which is quite slow I tell you, but too fast for me?)? I think it's both. I especially think I should slow down. Jonathan and I are running together, and I am trying to go faster than is comfortable so he won't think it's such a drag to run with me. This is really pushing my limits. Additionally, I've not been sleeping well this week. I'll sleep from about 10:30pm to 1am or 3am then I'm wide awake. It's horrible.

Thursday I just couldn't muster the courage to do another 4.5 miles. The memory of Tuesday's 4.5 m horror was too fresh. I unashamedly skipped (of course now I'm freaked out the 10k and half will be horrible all because I skipped this run)!

Despite all of this, I was almost looking forward to Race for the Cure on Saturday. Since my legs were "rested", I was really hoping I would enjoy the run. I knew things were not starting off well when I only slept from 10:30pm-2am the night before. My head was pounding, and my body was tired when I got up. It was a really festive atmosphere when we got there though, and that helped. We got some cute shirts made for our work team, and well, being in a cute shirt is always a good thing; right? The good feelings the shirt brought me were short lived. First off, I missed the 1 mile marker which frustrated me. I walked through the water stop and really started feeling worn out. I was especially discouraged to see so many people I knew hadn't been training for running in front of me. I know I shouldn't compare myself to others, but seriously? I have been working on this since the end of April!

I really wanted to break 30 minutes, but secretly, I was hoping to get in the 28-something range. I knew I had to have a bit quicker than a 9:30 pace for that. When I got to the 2nd mile marker, I was at 19:00 so I was right on track. I just needed to pick up the pace a little on the last mile. Unfortunately, I just missed my goal, and finished in 29:10. This is my new PR, however, so that's a little consoling. The timers were really messed up because it was such a big race so my official time (by the time I got all the way through the chute) was 31:58. Umm...I'm not going by that.

Jonathan ran on his own the whole race so I was pretty worried about pacing myself. I did better at this than I thought which gives me some confidence for the next race. He started off too quickly, but did awesome. He ran a 24: something---his best yet. Yay for him!



I am dreading, dreading, dreading this week's runs. I just cannot imagine getting back out there after the "Great 7 Mile Disaster of September 21st". Slow down and walk when necessary is my strategy.

See the pictures from the race here:

Week 6 of 12: Half Training Report

M: 4 m in mountains on vacation
W: 2 m
R: 4 m
Su: 7 m

Not a good running week at all (except for the fact that I did stick to the schedule). We were in Custer, SD on Monday and got up and ran along the George Mickelson trail. It was scenic, but the thin air and hills were a killer!

Thursday's 4 miler was horrible, too. My legs felt off from the start. I just never got in a groove. So disappointing. I felt like I was making progress (maybe getting a little cocky even), but that run felt like 2 steps back.

Nothing, nothing was as bad as yesterday's 7 miler though. We slept in on Saturday so we decided we'd get up on Sunday for the run. We hydrated well on Saturday and got to bed early in preparation for the run. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep (only slept from 10:30-2am) so I felt like a truck hit me by morning. We then decided we'd run that evening after I caught up on my sleep during the day. Trouble was---I never caught up. We ran nonetheless along a new route. The wind was blowing at 17mph. It was behind us for the 4 miles on the way out, however, the 3 back in, we were fighting it. It was awful! I was dying on the way out, even with the wind at my back. My legs felt fine, but I was just huffing and puffing. When we turned around, the wind just hit me. I actually started bawling like a baby. Lesson learned: if you're huffing and puffing to start with, crying just complicates breathing matters. Jonathan was running in front of me, and I rehearsed over and over how I was going to ask him to run home while I waited for him to get the car and come pick me up. When I hit mile 5 though, I started to think I could make it. We dropped water on the way out and stopped for a water break about 1.5 miles from the finish. This really energized me. I knew I could finish. When we hit the 1 mile marker, I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. My knees were starting to hurt, but my cardiovascular was what was really kicking my butt. When we finished, I was light headed and everything started to ache. The walk home from mile 7 was painful, but it was nice to get the breathing under control and walk off some of the aches.

The mental part of finishing 7 miles was brutal! I just kept thinking that there is no way I can finish 13.1 in November! I'm half way through this training plan, and that run was just awful! I have never felt that bad on a run. I hope the wind and the lack of sleep made it so brutal.

And now...man, my knee is killing me. When we got back to the house, we stretched, iced our knees for 10 minutes, ate some dried fruit, and drank 2 big glasses of water. When I woke up this morning, my feet were achy, and my left knee is hurting. I iced it again this morning. I hope it works itself out.

I am not feeling good about this at all right now. The good news is that this week we have a 5k race instead of a long run on Saturday. I need a "long run vacation", and I definitely need an attitude adjustment...

On to happier things, our vacation pics turned out really good:

Week 5 of 12: Half Training Report

M: 4 m
T: skipped 2m run
W: 6m
R: left for vacation
F: 2 m

I ran 6 miles! It wasn't pretty, but again, I finished. It's slow which is a little disappointing, but "they" say not to worry about speed. The first 5 miles felt really good. In fact, on miles 4 and 5 my legs were on autopilot. We stopped right before we started the last mile and got a drink of water and stretched. It felt like starting over from that point. My legs were killing me, and it took everything I had to finish. Maybe I shouldn't stop and stretch/drink, or maybe I should make my stop shorter. Not sure about that.

I switched our long run to Wed. so we were certain to get it done before we went on vacation. We ran 2 miles on Friday morning, but never got around to the 4 m run for the week. Hopefully skipping a workout here and there doesn't kill us.

Week 4 of 12: Half Training Report

T: 3.5 m on treadmill
W: 2 m pace--skipped
R: 3.5 m outside
Sa: 5 m

Well, Tuesday's 3.5m on the treadmill went better than I thought. I swore I wouldn't do more than 3m on a treadmill, but turns out that when the alarm goes off at 5:30am, the treadmill at lunch doesn't seem all that bad. I didn't get around to my 2m pace this week, but didn't really feel the effects of skipping thank goodness. The 5m run on Saturday went better than last week's though I was a little disappointed in the pace. It is really cooling off, and I love being out with a chill in the air! I hope it gets cool enough to ward off the mosquitoes---I got attacked on Saturday's run! But at least I didn't swallow a bug like Jonathan did. Really nasty!

This next week will be tough to work all the runs in as we're going on vacation with my parents to SD, and I'm busy getting things lined out at work for my absence. 6 miles is coming up on Wednesday--yikes!