Napa Training Weeks 14 and 15... Hanging On

I think I have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It's cold outside. It's gray. I think it either rains or sleets every weekend. All I want to do is curl up in bed and stay there. I'm hungry. I'm tired of oatmeal. I'm tired of bananas. I'm tired of chicken. Did I mention it's cold outside? I just feel exhausted.

The last two weeks have been a struggle. I thought it was smooth sailing after Charleston. I felt good during my recovery week but then it turned into a grind...

Week 14
Sunday - Rest

Monday - 10 miles. Originally I thought I had a pace run on the schedule and was dreading it but then discovered it was just a regular run. Hallelujah! I got it done on the hamster track.

Tuesday - Rest. Original plan was to run 20 miles but I had too much stuff to do at home, I was tired, and I just wasn't in the mood to run so I rearranged the schedule and took a rest day. Then I totally fell off the good food wagon. I just wanted comfort food. Meatloaf and green bean casserole. Then ice cream with hot fudge sauce and salted caramel peanuts... all stuff from my grocery shopping that week.

Wednesday - 5 miles. Hamster track again.

Thursday - 10 miles. Not in the mood to run but ground it out on the track then went to work.

Friday - 20 miles. Again, not thrilled about it but I hit the track early so I could get all my miles in before going to work. I had thought about doing the 10 on Friday and the 20 on Saturday but Saturday was my day off and I didn't want my run to suck up my entire morning. This turned out to be a great decision, mainly because I didn't get home from work until 4 am Saturday.

Saturday - Rest. I was toast after my shift at work. I was suppose to run 5 more miles but just couldn't do it.


Week 14 Total Miles: 45

Week 15
Sunday - Rest. It was raining. Surprise (insert sarcasm)

Monday - 5 miles. Yup, hamster tracked it.

Tuesday - 10 miles. So this was my pace run. It was 20 degrees with 15 mph winds. I tried SO hard to not run the early miles fast but still blew through the first mile.
Mile 1 - 8:20. Ugh. I have GOT to slow down!
Mile 2 - 8:33. Slow down, slow down...
Mile 3 - 8:40. Better. I hit the turn around and the wind hit me full force.
Mile 4 - 8:42. 4 and 5 were the uphill into the wind miles. I swear if it's this windy in Napa I'm running behind somebody!
Mile 5 - 8:47
Mile 6 - 8:37. Made the turn around and flew downhill with the wind at my back again, then realized I was running 7:55 pace. SLOW DOWN!
Mile 7 - 8:40
Mile 8 - 8:46. I hit the turn around and the wind just took my breath away again.
Mile 9 - 9:04
Mile 10 - I was DONE with the wind after mile 9. Just totally done. Ended up walk/jogging home.
Average pace for 9 miles was 8:41.

Wednesday - 20 miles. Last 20 miler of this training cycle. I had kids to cart around in the evening and it was suppose to snow so I went out at 8 am to get the run in. Thankfully, it was sunny and not as windy as Tuesday. I kept my Garmin covered up and just listened for the beeps for my mile markers. I ran 10 miles out from my house and ended up somewhere in the northern part of the next county, running past some really nice countryside scenery and scared up two turkeys. It was a nice easy run. I picked up my pace the last mile to see what I could run it in... and ran mile 20 in 8:49.

Glad I got the run in early. It got nasty in the late afternoon then started snowing.

Thursday - Rest. Active recovery at work all day.

Friday - 10 miles. Easy run on the hamster track and... drumroll... I MADE MY GOAL RACE WEIGHT!! Woohoo. Now I just can't gain any weight for 3 more weeks.

Saturday - 5 miles. OMG! The sun came out! I worked the night shift Friday night so I slept in Saturday morning. When I woke up the sun was shining. I wasn't sure if I was going to run on Saturday as I was sure I'd be dead tired after my shift but the sun lured me outside and I got 5 easy miles in.

Week 15 Total Miles: 50

So now it's down to 3 more weeks. I'm not sure what I'm going to do mileage-wise this week. The training program calls for 34 miles, then down to 26 after that, then it's marathon week. I feel like I need to run more than 34 miles this week then do a two week taper. I'll have to see how I feel.