Sunday (1/31) - 10 miles. It was 60 degrees and felt like Spring. I was going outside. I decided to just let my legs dictate how far I went... and they felt fantastic. One of those runs where you felt like you could go forever. However, I had no water or fuel and I didn't even know what time it was as I wasn't wearing a watch so I stopped at 10 and went home. I ran the loop at the old West Grove school so I could stop whenever I wanted.
Monday (2/1) - 5 miles. Another beautiful day. My Garmin splits say it all. It's the first time I've worn a watch since November. I wanted to do some kind of tempo or speedwork on the Monon but really hadn't committed to a plan when I started, as I didn't know what my legs would feel like after Sunday and this was my 5th day in a row running. I started at what felt like a "good" tempo pace and tried not to look at my watch. This worked for 2 miles. Then, I charged the only little hill on the course and my legs just kept going after that... so I let them. Afterwards though I kept staring at my watch in disbelief. Hey, I actually ran fast today!
Tuesday (2/2) - Zero miles. I actually wanted to run today however, the flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants training plan in my mind this week was going to be to try a back-to-back 10 miler and 20 miler like I had done during my marathon training leading up to Napa. If I ran today, it would be my sixth day in a row. I didn't want to try 20 on my seventh day. So, no run today.
Wednesday (2/3) - 10 miles. Everything went as planned. I hit the county roads south of my house and did 10 solid hilly miles without a problem. Then... it started sleeting in the evening.
Thursday (2/4) - 15 miles. It was cold and wet and totally gross by morning so I hit the hamster track. Now that I've been listening to podcasts, running on the indoor track has become SO much easier. I just plug in and run on autopilot. Everything was fine until mile 12. Mile 12 I started to feel my left hamstring starting to complain. My right foot has also been hurting a wee bit. OK, maybe a little more than a wee bit after 10 or so miles. Anyway, I have been getting paranoid I might be developing a stress fracture in my foot. BUT, it goes away if I stop running and the pain moves around a bit so I'm NOT getting it looked at for now. The hamstring I'm more concerned about because I KNOW all about that pain. Anyway, it bothered me enough that I stopped after 15. I think it's still too early in the training cycle to push it.
Thursday night all hell broke loose as far as my sleep cycle. I'd been staying up late all week because I didn't have to go to work early in the morning and I'd been really productive in cleaning out my office and doing other things in general until the wee hours of the morning - like 1-2 am. Thursday night I MADE myself get in bed at 2 am. I was physically tired. SO tired. But my brain would NOT shut off! I laid there until well after 4 am. It was probably closer to 5 am before I fell asleep. I almost got up to do something (anything!) but my husband was about to beat me to death at that point because my tossing and turning was keeping HIM up too. And my leg hurt.
Friday - Zero miles. I had planned to get a couple shake out miles in but was too trashed from the night before. I was basically a zombie all day... until 8 pm. Oh no... then I was wide awake and ready to tackle the world... except I had to get up at 4:30 am on Saturday to go to work. I took an Ambien at 11 pm to knock myself out.
Saturday - Zero miles. I worked all day and it was a stressful day. Today was a planned rest day anyway. I made it home, crawled into a chair, and planned my couponing deals for the coming week.
Week 8 - 40 miles
Now the weather is wretched again. I'm planning another higher mileage week for Week 9 so I hope my body is on board. On the plus side, I'll be back to working at night so I won't have to fight the sleep cycle too much.
Glad you're listening to your body and adjusting. You've got this. And those great, speedy runs... *angels sing*!
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