Week 7
Sunday - 9 miles. Last day of "Nutcracker" for G. I got up painfully early to get my run in before heading off to the theater. Once I got outside and moving it wasn't too bad and it was nice to see the sunrise over the farm fields but, ughh, I'm NOT a morning person!
Monday - 4 miles. Got up at 4:30 am to go to work. Got my run in at the fitness center in the evening.
Tuesday - Rest.
Wednesday - Rest. I was suppose to do my pace run but was still too tired so I moved my schedule back a day. This meant I'd have to do my long run after a night shift but I just couldn't get myself out the door to do my pace run on Wednesday.
Thursday - 9 miles. This was suppose to be my pace run. I decided to play with the settings on my Garmin and had it alarm at 8:35 pace and at 8:55 pace so that I could keep tighter reins on my pace. NEVER AGAIN!!! The watch beeped at me every 30 seconds and made me crazy. It ended up just being a HUGE distraction. First 3 miles went 8:45, 8:45, and 8:51.
I don't know whether it was the distracting watch or what but after 3 miles I just didn't feel like I could keep pace AGAIN! This is stupid. I KNOW I can run 8:45 pace for longer than 3 miles but on pace days I just seem to fall apart. Rather than throw in the towel though, I decided to try and salvage the workout by alternating jogging a mile, then picking up the pace the next mile. So, jog mile 4, mile 5 - 8:36, jog mile 6, mile 7 - 8:59, jog mile 8, run next 800m in 4:10, jog next 800m to warm down. I got all 9 miles in, just not all at pace.
Friday - 19 miles. I worked Thursday night from 7 pm to Friday morning 7 am then came home and slept for 4 hours. I got up at 11:30 am so I could eat and wake myself up a bit before heading out on my long run. I figured I'd be tired but this was suppose to be a nice slow run so all I had to do was complete the distance. I didn't even bother to wear my heart rate monitor as I figured I'd be running slow and gave myself a 4 hour block to finish the run. I just ran at what I felt was a comfortable pace. The only reason I wore my Garmin was that I was trying out a new route that took me on some less traveled county roads... but the splits my Garmin started spitting out were unexpected...
I figured out right away that I was probably running too fast to keep my heart rate under 150 but I felt so good I decided to just go with it...
I wore a fuel belt and practiced fueling at 5 miles, 10 miles, and 14 miles. I wanted to practice eating on the run. First thing I tried were Clif Shot Bloks. Nope, not going to work. I had a hard time chewing and running at the same time. Went back to gels for the rest of the run. I also had a hard time drinking out of a squeeze bottle and running at the same time but I figured I wouldn't have this problem in a race.
Mile 7 I got chased by a dog.
By Mile 10 I was telling myself I really should slow down. At 13.1 miles I peeked at my watch and saw 2:04:45. After that, the run got hard and I told myself that I didn't need to push myself today. The last 2 miles were pretty tough. All things considered, I was thrilled with how this run went down. I would have never dreamed of running this fast on a long run after a night shift but the moment felt right and I seized it!
Saturday - 4 miles. I ran the Joy of Giving 5K with G to finish out the Crossroads of Indiana Race Series. G was done with "Nutcracker" and had a free Saturday. She told me that if she could dance for 4 hours she could run 3.1 miles. Ummm...yah... I've done both too and it's not the same. However, I thought it would be fun to run with my daughter so I agreed to run with her. For the record, G's never run 3 miles before...
Mile 1 - 9:25, hmmm... actually not a bad pace
Mile 2 - 11:28, G started having to walk shortly after the mile mark
Mile 3 - 11:28, she struggled through that last mile but finished
Her official time was 33:36.3. I finished right behind her in 33:37. She was pretty much a whiny train wreck after the race so I had to take her back over to her grandparents' house before going back and running a warm down before the end of year awards ceremony (which will be a different post).
Week 7 Total Miles: 45 miles
4 good days, 1 "ehh" day, 2 rest days
Week 8
Sunday - Rest. Spent the whole day at work.
Monday - 10 miles.
Tuesday - 5 miles.
Wednesday - 10 miles.
Thursday - 20 miles and a story...
How often do we let distractions alter our runs? The distraction that almost bagged my long run this week was a UPS delivery... and it wasn't even MY delivery.
Tuesday, my husband was expecting a UPS delivery. It never came. He left town on business on Wednesday. I came back from running on Wednesday and found a delivery notice on our door. The package needed a signature so they were going to try and redeliver on Thursday between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm. Well, I had to leave the house by 6:30 pm to go to work. The ONLY thing I had planned as a "must do" on Thursday before going to work was to get my 20 mile run in and I was giving myself a 4 hour block to do it. If I wanted to get done before 10:30 am I'd have to start at 6:30 am. Not going to happen, especially on a day where I'm staying up all night to work the night shift. If I started my run after 2:30 pm I didn't feel like I could get done in time to get to work.
I was mad. This wasn't even really my problem but somehow I felt responsible and it just really messed with my mind. Finally I decided to just leave a note for UPS on the door saying I'd be back at noon and that they could leave the package at the door if they wanted. That was the best I could do.
It poured rain all week so I did all my runs indoors at the fitness center. I get there and realized that it's actually almost 9 am. Crap. No way am I going to be back at the house at noon either. I spent the rest of my run ruminating on what I should do.
10:30 am passed. Would UPS really even come back to my house if they tried to deliver when I wasn't home and saw the note? They could just leave another delivery notice and try again on Friday. I have the day off on Friday. I'll be sleeping all morning after my night shift but I'll be home.
11:30 am. Should I just run 10 miles and go home and see if UPS came by, and if not, wait for the delivery. No no no! This is not my problem. If it comes down to it they will try to redeliver tomorrow. I will regret it if I cut this run short. Hal Higdon says the long runs are the most important runs in the training program. Bag anything else but not the long run.
Noon. OK, still running here on the track. This is MY run. It's suppose to be my long slow relaxing run. Physically I feel really good. Mentally I'm just mad about having to worry about this whole delivery issue. Nothing I can do about it now. It's after twelve o'clock. UPS has either come or not. This is MY run. MY RUN.
I got all 20 miles done. I ran slower than I did the week before but I didn't feel tired at all at the end of my run like I did the week before. Most of all though, I was proud of myself for finishing the run and not letting the UPS distraction alter my plans.
1:00 pm. I got home and my note was still on the door. Nothing else. No package. No redelivery notice. I was so worried about this delivery that I actually put off getting in the shower. I was going to wait until 2:30 pm. If they weren't here by then, I'd get in the shower.
2:00 pm. UPS finally shows up... then they piddle around in my driveway for 10 minutes because THEY CAN'T FIND THE PACKAGE!! Somehow they misplaced it between Wednesday and Thursday. They want to know if they can bring it to me later...
So, moral to the story - don't let distractions alter your running plans! I would have been really mad at myself had I cut my run short because UPS didn't even get here until after I finished my run. And really, had they come while I was running, they would have tried to deliver it again the next day and I would have been home so it really was not a problem. I just need to stop blowing little distractions into big distractions and STAY FOCUSED!
Friday - Rest. I kept thinking all this week that if I got my long run in and my night shift over with, I'd have the whole weekend to relax and get all my Christmas stuff done. I woke up after sleeping all morning with a cough, fever, and body aches. Ughh! Now I'm really glad I decided to do my long run before my night shift rather than after it like I did last week otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
And then more serious stuff... my father-in-law went to have a diagnostic heart catheterization Friday morning. He had had what he thought was a chest cold he couldn't shake and no known history of any heart problems. His procedure was at 9 am. I woke up at 11 am to see how it had gone and found out he was being transferred to another hospital for open heart surgery. Totally not what anyone in our family had expected. Surgery is scheduled for Monday. Needless to say this has disrupted all of our holiday plans as most everyone has been at the hospital. Another reminder to seize the moment while you can cause you never know what will happen tomorrow.
Saturday - Unplanned rest day. There was 5 miles on the schedule but I still felt bad and decided to listen to my body rather than the numbers on the training schedule. Went to see my father-in-law and tried to finish up everything for Christmas.
Week 8 Total Miles: 45
4 good days, 3 rest days
Drop down week coming up this week... just in time for Christmas. I'm going to need it.
Please say a little prayer that everything goes well for our family on Monday!
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