Running in the Moment

..of my training for my first HIM.  Phew.  The race is in three days.  THREE DAYS.  I’m not sure if I’m excited, nervous or sick to my stomach about it.  I seem to cycle through one of those emotions several times during the day, when I’m not distracted with work stuff.

I also wanted to let you know that I am alive.  It’s been a week since my last post!  Whoops!  Honestly, regarding training there isn’t much excitement to report… had a migraine over the weekend which put a damper on my taper training, however I finally managed to man up and finish the rest of my workouts this week. 

After work on Monday I took my bike to Big Shark to have them look over my bike and make sure that everything (wheels, brakes, chain, etc) looked ok.  I would have gotten an actual tune up but I waited too late and when I called last week to make an appointment the soonest time they had available was on the 25th, and that obviously wouldn’t work.  Everything checked out ok, which helped ease a little bit of pre-race anxiety for me.

Then I headed to the pool for one last long swim, 1,850 yards, and to also test out my new goggles I bought on Saturday to replace my leaky ones.  Unfortunately they didn’t have the same pair that I had at REI, so I tried out a new pair that were ‘metallized’.  Whatever that means.  To me it looked like they had a sheen that helped block out the sun glare, which is what my old pair did, but the old pair was tinted grey and these were yellow-ish. 

Boy am I glad I tried them out this week before the race.  I hated them.  Not only were they bright yellow and hard to see in (probably didn’t help that the lighting was dim in the indoor pool), but when they fogged up, it was worse.  They were pretty darn awful.  The visibility was so bad that I took out my headphones because I was starting to feel claustrophobic.  Yes, I sound dramatic, but while all of this was going on I started thinking about the swim, and the wetsuit, and feeling constricted…. I was starting to freak out about the swim portion of the race, which I hadn’t ever worried about!  Ugh.  I managed to finish the swim in the dumb goggles and decided I should maybe consider forking out more $ for a new pair for peace of mind, but it was already 8p and that was the last think I felt like doing after the long day I already had.

The next morning I was up bright and early to get to work for a long day ahead of me, as it was the day that my clinic went live.  I had some last-minute cutover build to complete before the clinic opened and then I headed over to do floor support.  Surprisingly things went pretty well, no huge issues, however it was a long day, and I was on my feet most of it, which I am not used to.  I finally headed home around 6p, which was much later than I was hoping, because I had my last ride to squeeze in before it got dark out.

Well, by the time I finally let the little guy out, changed and got my bike ready, I realized that 16 miles probably weren’t going to happen with the little daylight left and the fact that I didn’t have a light on my bike (I do plan to get one at some point, but riding at night still seems pretty dangerous to me), so the total mileage on the bike was 8.5 miles.  Ouch.  Well, I guess it’s better than not riding at all.

After the ride I headed over to Sports Authority to see if they had my old pair of goggles in stock, and to my happiness, they did!!  And they were even less than what I had originally paid for them.  Hooray!!  I immediately felt better knowing that I wasn’t going to have to do the swim in those horrendous yellow-tinted goggles during the race.

I did some laundry and layed out most of my race gear so that I wouldn’t have to be up all night Wednesday putting it together and stressing.  All of my gear will have to be packed and ready by Wednesday night so that after work on Thursday I can go home and grab my bike and gear and get it to the club truck by 7p, because they are planning on heading out that night!  I’ll be sure to include pictures tonight.  The pile keeps growing… there’s just so much to pack!  Now armwarmers and who knows what else will be included because the weather predictions that morning will be chilly!

This morning I got up early, ran 4 miles at the gym (boo, I always take running outside for granted until I run on the treadmill and realize how much better running outside is) and hurried to work.  I’m getting ready to head to my clinic and do floor support, but figured I’d fill you in on all of the excitement that’s been going on (ha) while I had a few minutes 🙂

The Tri club monthly meeting is tonight after work, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m sure everyone will be pretty pumped and excited about the race this weekend since so many members are going!

…I keep telling my body, but it is really disobeying.  Last night I was in bed by 9p.  Yes, 9p.  Yet, I never got a solid hour of sleep until 5a.  Argh.  All night long I tossed and turned because my arms and legs felt restless.  Honestly, my body seemed ready to run a marathon right then and there (at least it felt that way).  So irritating.  So as you can guess, no workout occurred this morning.  I finally rolled out of bed very un-refreshed, and got ready for work.

Work was busy again as I worked on the last projects / tasks for the go-live, and as chipper as I tried to be to coworkers, they could tell I was dragging.  With the go-live right around the corner, several people asked me if I was just worried or stressed about the go-live and to their surprise, I responded, ‘no, I’m losing sleep about the half-ironman next weekend’.  To be honest, I am a bit stressed about the go-live, but I’ve done this before, so I know what to expect.  A half-iron distance?  Not so much.  Too many unknowns make me nervous.

Anyways, enough whining (that’s what I’ve been doing a lot it seems… I promise I’m done!), I finally kicked my tired rump into gear and did a 20 mile ride followed by a 2 mile brick run.  I felt much better after the workout, and if you can believe it, I also felt more recharged!  That feeling better go away soon because I really need sleep tonight!

On a side note, the weather right now is amazing!  When I took the little guy out on a walk tonight the air was crisp and even a bit chilly, I love it!! Fall, I’ve missed you!!  The only thing missing is long weekend runs in Forest Park and the sound of leaves crunching under my feet.  I cannot wait.  Too bad Patrick doesn’t like wearing Halloween costumes or I’d already be planning one for him to wear this year.  His debut lady-bug costume two years ago was not a success and since then I’ve been respecting his wishes to not dress up.  Good thing baby C has agreed to wear the Halloween bib I bought her this year, phew!

I feel like I’m living out the same day each morning I wake up this week…. I *once again* didn’t get up to get my morning workout in (but don’t worry, I got it in after work) and work was busy busy busy.  The only thing that changes is my workout and my lunch.

After work, I headed over to the Y to get my long swim of the week in, 2,150 yards.  I was excited to finally swim in the pool since it’s been closed for three weeks.  They had painted the locker rooms and the pool did indeed look cleaner, I guess the tile really needed a good scrubbing.  After swimming two laps my right goggle started leaking, so I tightened the strap and was on my way… more leaking… more strap tightening… more leaking.  Argh!  I finally got them to stop leaking but they were so tight it was giving me a slight headache.  I guess perhaps it’s time to buy a new pair, because there’s no way I can endure a headache during the swim to avoid leaky goggles.

I was also looking forward to this swim to see what my pace was, as my pace had seemed to improve while swimming a few times at the Clayton pool, from 2:07/100 meters to 1:59/100 meters.  However, my overall average pace after the swim was 2:07/100 meters.  Seriously?  Either I was having a slow pool day or Clayton’s pool is a bit shorter.  I’m going with that.  I guess I’ll have a better idea after tomorrow’s swim.

I was happy to have a shorter commute to get my swim in, but I really enjoyed swimming at the pool in Clayton.  It’s a bit cooler than the water temp at the Y, but I noticed today I was actually hot by the end of my swim, so that’s not a bad thing.  Plus, they keep the pool area really warm/humid at the Y so it’s kind of hard to breathe while swimming too.  I plan on sticking with the Y over the winter, but when training starts up again in January next year, I might switch over to Clayton, as I love love love that pool.  Which is saying a lot coming from me, because I’m not a big fan of swimming… I would much rather be out running or riding.

And once again, the day is over and I am on the couch, and probably heading to bed soon.  Fortunately the weekend is right around the corner and I do have some fun, non-training things planned, so I’m looking forward to that and spending less time on the couch at night!

I finally am sitting on the couch after a busy past two days, so I’ll keep this short.  Monday, as usual, I didn’t get up in time to get my swim in before work.  I think during my next training cycle, I’ll just make Mondays rest days, because I find that they’re the most difficult day of the week to get up anyways and adding a workout in the morning on top of that is just a set-up-to-fail plan.  I spent the rest of the day at work flying around working on different things to get ready for the go-live next week, and on top of that, my coworker who is working on it with me, was out sick.  I did manage to run out and get a tuna sandwich from Panera, and I think it will be my last.  I’m not sure what the deal is, I understand tuna can be kind of messy, but I think they make it messy on purpose.  Like they are told to do that… ‘oh and when you make the tuna sandwich, put as much tuna in it as you can, and when you wrap it up, squish it while wrapping’.  I have to eat the darn thing with a fork or most of the sandwich will end up in my lap.  Yes, this picture does make it also look gross, but it is a pretty darn good tuna sandwich, if you like tuna.  I’ll get off my tuna sandwich soapbox now.

Seriously????

I worked pretty late and therefore didn’t get home until late, ate dinner and went to sleep.  Living the crazy tuna sandwich life.

Today at work was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, coworker was out sick again, but I switched it up and ate a lean cuisine for lunch.  Sodium, yum!  After work I ran 6 miles at a pretty decent pace, did a load of laundry and now I’m waiting for my Kashi mushroom and spinach pizza to be ready!  Then off to bed for an early wake up call to get a workout in before work.  I also had a popsicle after my run, I forgot I had bought a box of sugar-free popsicles a long time ago when I came down with a sore throat, and found it hidden behind some frozen veggies.  It’s not even that hot out now, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

Enough rambling for now…

This weekend was busy and productive and now I am tired 🙂  A good tired though.  Friday was pretty uneventful, the Dr. appt was fine – my blood pressure is good, weight is the same as my lowest recorded (although those dumb stupid scales STILL weigh more than mine at home… why don’t they just tack on 2lbs to the scales they sell at the store because they always seem to weigh less than the ones at the Dr’s office?), and I also learned that my Dr. just did his first full Ironman two weeks ago.  He gave me some great tips for race day and after talking to him, I felt much more relaxed about race day.  Even though I switched jobs and he’s considered out of network, because he does multisports (not just casually, this guy did an 11:41 Ironman, woah!) and understands endurance athletes, I know (and have in the past) that if I go to him with an injury, he’ll give me legit advice and won’t just say, ‘you need to stop running/biking/etc’ or ‘you’re just doing too much’.  Totally worth the extra copay.  That night I turned in early to prepare for the busy planned weekend.

Saturday I woke up a bit later than planned, but because of the cooler temperatures I wasn’t worried about the late start for my long run.  The 14 miler went fairly well except for the last two miles which my entire upper back cramped up causing extreme discomfort while running and breathing, so those miles were a bit sad pace-wise.  I also ran (literally) into my neighbor at Forest Park and talked with him a bit about how training was going and race-day goals.  He shared a bit about his half that he did a year or two ago and any tips he had to offer; it was a nice break in the run and helped give me the energy for the second half of the run.

After the run I had half of a peanut butter sandwich, filled up my water bottle with enduralyte fizz and headed to the pool to swim my longest swim of the training cycle.  2,650 yards… sounded daunting to me, but once I got going (and with the help of the waterproof ipod for a slight distraction), it was over before I knew it.  Boom!  Plus at a good pace, 1:59/100 meters, well good for me 🙂

When I got home I drank my protein shake and lounged on the couch (I layed a towel down so I didn’t get it all gross with my sweaty funk) and when I finally heard JMR’s car, I decided I better hop in the shower.  We had plans to go to the Clayton Art fair, an annual art fair that attracts a lot of different types of artists with all kinds of varying art.  There are also food and drink vendors, so it’s a good way to spend a long afternoon or evening.

After several wardrobe changes (with the cooler weather I couldn’t decide what to wear), we were off and enjoying art.  I was very good and restrained from purchasing anything, as two years ago I bought a painting and last year I bought a ring, so that was a small victory for me (the stuff there isn’t cheap!).

Several hours later we left to get dinner and on the way stopped by my aunt’s house to drop off a bike helmet that I had borrowed…. a year ago.  Yes, I cringe typing that.  I love my mom, but on her side of the family, she has gained a reputation of being a ‘black hole’, as in if you leave anything at my parent’s house too long, it just up and disappears.  Apparently, I’m slowly carrying on that legacy.  Argh.  At least I did find the helmet and returned it, just a tad late.

Dinner was good, we went to our usual place, Lesters, and had a couple of beers afterwards watching the end of some college football games and then headed home.  We then took the little guy on a walk and finally headed to bed.  11p-ish was the last time I checked the clock, a tad late for a 6:45a wake up call for my club bike ride!

I did manage to get up in time, let the little guy up, pack up ALL of the gear, and head to Columbia, IL for a 40-ish planned ride.  I also packed all of my planned nutrition for race day (spoiler: I didn’t eat the gels, too busy trying to keep up with the fast group, but on race day I plan to eat them as well)

Planned Bike Nutrition for Race Day

The weather was cooler (low 60’s) when we started so I finally got to wear my arm warmers I bought well over a year ago with the intent on using for a run… not ride.  At that point in time, I thought riding a bike was ridiculous and I would never do it 🙂 Never say never!  I think the me that bought those arm warmers would be shocked to see what I’ve been doing recently.

Arm Warmers…hooray!

The ride was great, awesome weather, just a bit of headwind the last 15 miles, but all in all, the 48 we rode were pretty good miles on the bike 🙂  My training buddy was able to make it to the ride, as the past few weekends she’s been out-of-town, so it was good to see her as well.  When we hopped off the bikes, four of us ladies went off for a quick 4 mile brick run.  We averaged around a 9 min mile which makes me laugh because it felt effortless, yet there are days where ALL I am doing is a four mile run, and I can’t hold a 9 minute pace.  So… either I’m going to rock the run after the bike on race day, or the first four miles off of the bike are magical for me and then I’m in for a fun long run on race day.

I finally made it home around 1p, showered and put on nice, not-smelly clothes and after driving to the store for some food, I have been promptly parked on the couch and watching tv since.  Lazy?  Maybe.  I feel a bit guilty because I was hoping to swim after the ride/run, but it’s been a long weekend, and I haven’t gotten a lot of ‘rest’ time (especially being on my feet for 2+ hours at the art fair), so I feel like my body needs a bit of rest.

Next up: 5a wake up call for a long swim at the Y…hooray, it’s finally open after a 3-week hiatus.  It better be super-duper clean for all of the time it was closed for maintenance!!

It’s funny how four days weeks always seem even longer than regular five days weeks, at least to me they do.  Then throw in another four-day week the week before and this week seems EVEN longer.  Sadly, when I woke up today it was not Friday, only Thursday, hrmph.  Oh well, it still feels like Friday to me.

I woke up this morning tired, but awake enough that I was able to muster up the energy to head out for my planned long weekday run.  As I started running I was already doing the math to see if I could squeeze some miles in after work before a family event so that I could cut the run short.  I passed several other runners along the way and they were having a grand old-time, smiling and waving, looking super happy waving as they passed me and all I wanted to do was just crawl back into bed.  Morning people, pffft.  Finally by mile 3.5 my head stopped doing calculations and I realized that the planned 9 miles were going to happen this morning.  After that, I was able to settle into a stronger pace and then I was the one semi-smiling as I passed people and giving them a wave.  I’m still not a morning person, but after several miles I can pretend to be one too.

I finished the run in a little over an hour and 23 minutes, which isn’t super speedy, around 9:15 minute miles, but considering the first two were around a 10 minute pace, I’ll take it.  Plus, morning runs are usually a bit slower for me anyways because, well, it’s the morning, I’m still asleep.   It finally felt good to run at a speedier pace than I have usually been doing on my longer runs these days.

After quickly showering and getting ready, I headed to work a tad later than usual, but I figured that since this was my last long weekday run, it was ok to be a tiny later than usual since I won’t have to do this again anytime soon.  As usual work was busy, lots of preparation for the go-live, which helped the day go by fast.  I also celebrated my run as a victory amidst my recent not-so-great-training by eating an entire wrap from crazy bowls with some extra tofu added for lunch (no pictures, sorry, I ate it too fast).

After work I took the little guy on a walk and then headed over to my aunt and uncle’s for a family event.  I’m not sure if I had amnesia and forgot that I ate an ENTIRE wrap from crazy bowls for lunch, but I still managed to eat a bit too much.  As I’m typing this I still feel stuffed several hours later, but what can I say, as usual at our family parties, the food was too good to pass up on anything!  The next two weeks I’m really going to have to watch what I eat a bit more because the training volume will be considerably less (hooray), and gaining weight and wearing spandex do not match (boo hiss).  At least if you don’t want to scare people.

Tomorrow morning I have a dr’s appointment for my annual physical as well as for the increase in migraines I’ve been having, so no workout in the am, but I do have a swim planned after work.  I’m going to be a fish this weekend due to missing out on the workouts during the week.  Nothing like swimming three days in a row- I can’t wait to rock wrinkly fingers and carry the slight scent of chlorine by Sunday night.  Hot.  I’m sure JMR won’t be able to resist me.

Also, I lied in yesterday’s post, I don’t have any fun pictures for this post, but I’ll be sure to take some random ones tomorrow to surprise you with.

Night!

So it’s been almost a week since I last posted…. I’ve been both busy and not.  The wedding was fun on Friday, but the drive home on Saturday was not, it poured almost the whole way.  Yuck.  It was actually scary at times, I’m glad JMR was driving and not me.

We didn’t get back until 5 on Saturday due to the rain making the trip take much longer than expected, and we also stopped by to pick up Patrick from the kennel.  I was tired from being up late on Friday and the nerve-wracking drive home, so the 12 planned miles weren’t happening that night (and it was hot out!).

Sunday I woke up to drizzling rain and grey skies, I realize that if it rains on race day, I will have to deal with it, but riding in the rain by choice on a regular training ride scared me, especially because the route I was going to ride was a new one and I only knew a couple of people riding.  I decided I would run the 12 and do the longer ride on Monday when the roads weren’t slick.  After my run I met up with the club to watch the bike races that were going on that weekend.  The location for the races on Sunday was in an area called the Hill, which is a known as an Italian neighborhood in Saint Louis mostly due to the large number of restaurants and local italian grocers, so I was looking forward to eating some food from the local vendors.  I had a few beers and some other snacks the club brought but never made it to the food vendor area.  Bummer.  I also ran into my aunt and uncle which was a surprise too, I tried to find them later because we didn’t get to chat for too long when they stopped by but they had already headed home.  I don’t blame them, by late afternoon it had gotten really hot!

I left around 5 to head to the store to grab something for dinner.  When I got home, I took the little guy for a walk and then planted myself on the couch.  I’m not sure what it was, the long run in the heat or not eating enough afterwards, but I was exhausted!

Monday morning when I woke up it was also grey and gloomy out, it wasn’t raining, but it looked like it might and the thought of riding 50 miles solo with a chance of rain really wasn’t sounding appealing or safe.  I really should have dragged my butt to the gym and rode the stationary bike, but the bike fit is different than my bike and anything longer than 20 miles starts to get REALLY uncomfortable.  For the 45th time, the number one item on my Christmas list will be a bike trainer so I can ride my bike at home (in front of the tv) during crummy weather days.

Sadly the most exercise I got on Monday was a trip to the grocery store to buy healthy food for the rest of the week, that counts for something right?  Being proactive?

I did manage to finally get back on the wagon and ran Tuesday evening after work, only 4, but at a decent pace.  The plan today was to get up this morning and swim but I woke up at 3a with a massive case of insomnia and couldn’t fall back asleep until 5a.  I could have just gone straight to the gym but I had a big busy day at work and I would have been completely non-functioning.

Two weeks ago I was so energized and on track with my training.  I believed that knowing that the race was so close would definitely be motivation to keep me going during the last few weeks… but honestly, it hasn’t.  I still know I need to get my workouts done in order to make it to the finish, but I’m having serious motivation issues and am feeling like I have so much less energy than I used to.  Maybe it’s because I’m used to training for four months at a time, particularly for marathons, and this extra month (since it’s a five month training plan) is just more mentally tough for me to tackle.  Frustrating.

Additionally work is getting really busy and it doesn’t help that my clinic goes live the week before the race, and the busiest day will be the third day, Thursday Sept 20th, and it’s the day before I leave.  Between the stress at work and stressing about the work outs, I’m pretty darn stressed.  I really hope that the insomnia from worry last night won’t be a regular occurrence because I will be a mess come race day 😦

I did muster up the energy after work to get my 20 mile ride done followed by a short 2 mile run, but it was far from spectacular.  I’m really trying to go back to the reason why I decided to sign up for this race, because right now it just isn’t any fun to train, but at one point it was, I just need to figure out how to get back to that place, and quickly!!  Perhaps after getting some good sleep tonight I’ll feel recharged and ready to take on the last tiny bit of my training schedule.

I promise my next post will have more than just a picture of a rainy day…..

Until then…goodnight!

..well, for me at least 🙂  Tomorrow morning JMR and I are leaving at 6:30 am to drop little Patrick off at the Kennel and then hit the road for his friend’s wedding which is about 4.5 hours away.  I’m excited, but also a little unsure about the plans, as JMR is the best man and STILL doesn’t know what time he needs to show up, other than the fact that the wedding is at 5p.  Yeah.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed (it was painful) and hit the pavement at 5:50 am to get my scheduled 8 miles in.  This run sucked.  My legs were grumpy, perhaps tired from the workout that ended last night at 8:45p (and oh yeah, only 6 hrs of sleep because of that), or because it’s the morning and my body generally doesn’t like working out then unless I’ve had a ridiculous amount of sleep.  Anyways, I trucked through it and managed to have a better run around a 9:30 pace the last four miles or so (I said it was a bad run, 9:30 was good compared to the previous miles).  I ended up doing 8.5 to make up for the 4.5 last night that was supposed to be 5, so even though it was slower than anticipated, I’m glad I got it done plus the little extra.

After showering, packing my lunch (aren’t I good :)), and letting the little guy out, I headed to work for a busy busy day.  I wore a dress my mom bought me for my birthday, since I’m trying to fit in all of the fun ‘summer’ work clothes I have that I haven’t had a chance to wear enough.  She also bought me a cute pair of heels from the same store to compliment the dress and few other purchases, but regardless, my knees were on strike 😦  I am in denial that my days of wearing heels are finally over, but as I’m sitting here and occasionally poking my left knee to see if it’s really *still* sore (and it is), I’m getting closer to understanding that flats are in my really-not-kidding near future.  Boo hiss.  Sadly the dress I’m wearing to the wedding would look ridiculous in flats, so I’m going to have to suck it up and deal for a couple of hours, and then after that, plan long term to avoid heels…at least until the race.

Back to working out… after work I headed to the Center of Clayton to swim in their beautiful pool, and decided to try out the waterproof headphones again.  This time they really were a success!  I could hear the lyrics rather than just the bass almost the entire time!! These will be awesome for my longer swims in the future.  I squeezed in 1950 yards (although the pools I’m swimming in are usually in meters, and I’m too lazy to convert, so it’s really usually meters), and headed home to pack for the trip and eat dinner.

Now I’m all packed, ready to wake up at the rump-crack of dawn… oh wait, that’s right, wake up BEFORE that, to get another short run in, and then hit the road!  I’m sure Patrick is excited too, he gets to go to doggie daycamp all day tomorrow.  Right now he’s resting up for his big day 🙂

Now Patrick and I are both off to bed – catch you after the wedding!

I haven’t posted in a couple of days because work and my work-outs have kept me super busy!  Although Monday didn’t get off to a great start training-wise….  I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a bus due to getting awful sleep the night before, and also managed to sleep through my alarm, which meant my 8 miler wasn’t happening.  I thought I might try to fit it in after work, but after doing the math I realized it was pretty dumb to think I could just add it to this week’s mileage, which would bring it to a total of 44 miles, when my previous week’s was 31.  Jumping up 13 miles in one week is a great way to bring on an injury, so I decided against it and chalked it up to thinking my legs would just be that much fresher for the 36 miles planned this week.

When I got home I had a non-exciting dinner of left-overs, took my vitamins (which I started taking on Saturday) and went to bed at 8p, so I guess I really was tired.  I got up early on Tuesday feeling much better but had to get to work early so I didn’t have enough time to get my planned swim in (if only the gym I’m temporarily using opened at 5a), but after work, off I went for my first swim at the new gym.  The place was huge.  Much newer looking then the Y and the pool was awesome! 7 lanes!  The swim was pretty uneventful, swam 2400 yards as planned, and on my way home stopped by Straub’s to get some chicken salad for dinner.   Their chicken salad is awesome, but in small doses, unlike Whole Food’s chicken salad, they really lay the mayo on.

Work was another busy day and it will be that way until my clinic goes live, which is good, I like being busy, but it’s getting stressful!  When I got home I hopped on my bike for a 20 mile ride, and 5 miles in I realized my seat was crooked.  Argh.  I stopped and got off and tried to turn it with my hands, but it wouldn’t budge.  I figured I’d finish the ride and mess with it after.  I could really feel the seat though, I had a weird small twinge in my left knee that wasn’t there during my last right and was pretty sure it was because of the seat.  Once I got home, I was able to unscrew the seat a bit to loosen it and straighten it.  I took a quick ride around the neighborhood and that did the trick!  Hooray!

After the ride I put on my running shoes and took off for a 4.5 mile run.  I’m glad that next week is the last long week ride because it is really getting darker earlier!  two miles into the run it was DARK.  I feel that I live in a fairly safe area, but I don’t feel safe running in the dark as there were some parts that I was running that didn’t have any streetlights.  Next time if I start my run late, I’m going to have to head to the gym to get the run in.

So, not so much excitement to report, but JMR and I are headed to his friend’s wedding this weekend, so perhaps there will be some exciting stories to report.  This is his first time being a best-man in a wedding, so he is super duper nervous, but I’m sure he’ll do a  great job.

Off to bed!

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!