Friday, September 27, 2013

Train Wreck

Train wreck. That pretty much sums me up right now... me, my week, my training, my state of mind. My mileage is in the gutter, my sleep is all messed up, my body feels slow and bloated, and.. oh... I have a half marathon to run in the morning. Ack!!!!

So I had a 20 miler planned for Sunday morning. I got up at 5 am so I could be ready to run by 6 am. Then, I decided it wasn't really going to be that hot in the morning and I really didn't want to run with a headlamp again so maybe I'd just wait until it was light out. I dozed on the couch some more. It got light a little after 7. I got in my car and drove to park it, got out, then decided I really didn't feel like running. I was just too tired. My bed was still calling my name. I drove back home and went to bed.

My heels have really been hurting. I ran with the group last Thursday then took Friday and Saturday off. They were still painful on Sunday morning though and I think I kinda psyched myself out on running on them.

So... Sunday. Nada. Got up early. Wasted about 2.5 hours of quality sleep time then got nothing done.

Monday. Still tired. I cleaned up stuff around the house all day then finally decided to run in the evening. I was feeling much better and decided that if I could run 10 on Monday night and 20 on Tuesday, I would be back on track on my training schedule this week. I got 9 miles in and felt great. It got too dark to safely get that last mile in since I was wearing black shorts and a navy T-shirt and the road I was on was pitch dark with curves and no shoulder.

Tuesday. Got up at 5 again to run at 6. At 5:30 am it occurred to me that, again, it wasn't that hot out and I could easily run later in the day. Duh! Other thing was that I was suppose to work night shift that night so, really, I should be sleeping in. Went back to sleep (actually hid in the basement since the rest of the family thought I was running!) and snoozed til 10. Finally got out on the road at 11 am. I got a little over 12 miles in, then decided I was just too tired to continue. Nothing hurt any more than usual but I was just tired. I was also back at my house at this point so I threw in the towel and stopped and had my husband drive me back to my car.

Came back home and went back to bed again until the kids came home. Then, it was make dinner, run kids to their activities, and be at work by 7 pm.

Work was crazy. I am a total shit magnet. At one point, I had every police agency in the area - city, county, and state, as well as ambulance services from two different counties dropping patients off. Only good thing is that time went fast and I was still awake at 7 am.

Wednesday. Finally got home, drove my daughter to school, and went to bed. Woke up at 1 pm. What do you eat when you wake up at 1 pm? Breakfast? Lunch? Ice cream?

I had planned on getting 5-6 miles in before going back to work in the evening but that just didn't happen. I only got 5 hours of sleep, kids got out of school early, and I had to do dinner and run kids to their activities again before going back to work by 7 pm.

Wednesday night wasn't near as crazy as Tuesday night so I had hopes of trying to get my sleep and running back on track on Thursday. Nope. I ended up sleeping until noon then didn't get a run in. I figured I'd at least go to bed at a decent hour and try to get my sleep somewhat straightened out. That didn't happen either. Seems my younger daughter had a hard day at school and passed out on the couch when she came home. I couldn't even wake her up for dinner. She finally woke up at 8 pm in a panic because she had a large amount of homework. One of the things she had to do was find 8 vocabulary words in a book she was reading. The words were suppose to be somewhere in the first 8 chapters. She read those 8 chapters 3 times and still could not find 2 of the words. She was in total melt down mode by then and still had more homework to do since she had gotten hung up on finding those words. I finally couldn't take her melt down anymore and told her to move on while I found the words. I read those $%#&! chapters two times and still couldn't find one of the words. By then it was 1:15 AM so I decided we were both going to bed. 2 am - yup - I'm still awake staring at the ceiling. I finally took a sleeping pill to knock myself out.

Today. I let my daughter sleep in and drove her to school. Even went through Starbucks so she could have a Pumpkin Spice Latte for Café Friday. Came home and thought I'd be productive but wanted to lay down for a minute. Next thing I know, I'm looking at the clock and it says 9:45 am. There is something warm next to me that I thought was my daughter. I panicked and thought we had both overslept and she was late for school. I jumped up and shook the warm thing next to me, telling it to "get up so we can get to school." Then I really woke up and realized that that warm thing was actually the dog and remembered that I had already taken my daughter to school!

OK. Time to try and get my head together and prep for my race tomorrow. The weather is warming up and it's suppose to be 53 degrees between 6-8 am tomorrow morning and 64 degrees by 10 am (race starts at 8 am). Nevertheless, I headed out to Goodwill and picked up a throw away jacket.


I drove down to Columbus to pick up my race packet and scope out the parking and port-a-potties. I got a parking pass for the parking garage next to the start/finish line but it looks like I might need to be there close to 6 am to get a space.

I went to the grocery store to pick up more supplies...



I think gels in general are awful. However, after over an hour of running, things get a lot more palatable - especially when I start to feel hungry. I usually use vanilla flavored gels because they are the least offensive, however the vanilla flavored ones don't have caffeine. I want caffeine! The tangerine flavor really isn't too bad. I started drinking the Gatorade Recovery drinks because they contain 20 grams of protein per bottle. It's much easier for me to drink my protein than try to choke down food within an hour after my run.
I'll drive down to my in-laws in Columbus later this evening and spend the night there. I have no idea how this race is going to go tomorrow. I am really running it as a well supported tempo run to see how prepared I am for my marathon in November. I have put in a lot more mileage lately than I did for my half in May but I'm not too sure about the quality of that mileage. Part of my brain tells me I can probably run this at least as fast or faster than I did in May. Another part says to not push it too much but just get a good run in. Well, what exactly is a "good" run? 9 minute pace? 8:45? Is 8:30 pushing it? I have no idea. This has not been a good confidence building week for me. I feel like if I really push the pace and fail, it will really hurt me mentally. On the flip side, a good run will really be a boost.
I've found that so much of distance running is just mental. Somedays I'm sure I slow my pace or cut my runs short because I simply get "bored" in some sense. My body isn't hurting too bad and I'm not absolutely gasping for air or anything, but I just don't want to continue. I am really hoping I can just hold everything together for 13.1 miles tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. very snazzy look with the throw away jacket! :)
    So....in my opinion you are being pretty hard on yourself! I don't know much but when you have pains or when you just "don't want" to keep going (even if you think you are bored) well maybe your body is telling you something...that something could be to eat ice cream as you meal of choice when you wake up mid afternoon? who knows?! I hope everything goes well for your mini. I ran 7 yesterday at a GREAT (in my mind) pace of 9:14...good enough for me. Going for a quick 4 or 5 this morning before I head out! Good luck!

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