This morning I woke up ready to run the 12 miler I had planned, but after a few steps I noticed my quads were super stiff and my right glute was sore from the fall yesterday, causing discomfort when moving.  Oh great.  I should have stuck to the 30 mile ride on my training schedule yesterday instead of doing 58… and at a much faster pace I’m used to.  Lesson #1 I’m really going to have to learn during training next year that a lot of it will have to be done solo so that I’m doing my own workout and at my own planned pace.  Dead legs are no good.

After assessing that 12 miles probably wasn’t going happen, I scaled back to the mileage on my actual schedule, 8, and figured I would go with that.  Because I didn’t get in 12 miles last weekend, I was slightly freaking out, and thought I would just do the 12 this weekend instead of 8.  Nice try,… but not happening.  One mile into the run my legs were shot, my right butt hurt with each step and I felt exhausted and hungry.  WTF?  I realize that there are going to be training days where you don’t feel full of energy and you need to just suck it up, but this was plain freaking miserable.  It also didn’t help that JMR and I didn’t get home until after midnight, which is waaay past my bedtime.  Even though I slept in, it’s still not the same as going to bed earlier and getting good quality sleep.  Lesson #2 learned, sleep is a pretty darn important part of recovery, especially as training ramps up, and if you don’t get enough or good sleep, it really negatively affects your training.

So during the run I came up with a third gameplan, I would do 4 today and 8 tomorrow morning before work.  Even though I realized I was wasting a perfectly good day for training, I had zero energy to do it.  During the run I also decided I wasn’t going to join another gym just because my Y is closed for another two weeks.  I will probably have to pay a few times to use the Center of Clayton, but if I use the downtown Y after work (practically the only one that isn’t closed for cleaning) at least twice a week, it would cost a lot less than spending $50 for the Heights.  And honestly, I really hate their pool.  So even though my workout today was a fail, I felt a little better about it as I headed back home knowing I had a game plan in place, and additionally another one regarding the pool situation.

I’ve been icing my rump and quads most of the afternoon, hoping it will help my legs feel fresh tomorrow!  Later this afternoon I’m heading to my parents house for dinner – my sister, who is a nurse, had her first day back at the hospital today since she’s been on maternity leave, so they wanted to have a get together for her.  I hope it went well!  I think that is the longest she’s been away from baby C since she had her in June!

On my way home after dinner I’m planning on stopping at Trader Joe’s to stock up on food for the upcoming week; the game plan until race day is to eat healthy and not just have lean cuisine aka ‘loaded in sodium’ frozen meals.  They’re a great option if you’re in a pinch, but since I have time this evening to plan my meals for the rest of the week, I’m going to go with fresh options.   I’m also hoping that this will help me lose a few pounds to be race ready.  If I don’t, it won’t be the end of the world, at least I will just feel better overall!  Also, since the next two weeks of training are going to be the hardest, I’ll need some serious nutrition to help with recovery.  So, to go with the school/lesson theme 🙂 …Lesson #3 I have learned again and again, nutrition really affects your workouts, when I eat junk or not enough, my workout that day is usually awful.

That’s all for today, tomorrow will be the start of a very busy training week in addition to an out-of-town wedding on Friday night.  Thank goodness it’s a holiday weekend so I’ll have all day Monday to fit my missed workout from Saturday in!