running: the dawn

The fact that running can sometimes be painful is not a new revelation by any means.  However tonight as I lay in bed unable to sleep from the trobbing caused by my latest running saga I have no choice but to laugh at myself…

I wanted to run 5 miles today to somehow salvage the day from being a complete waste of time.  But no matter how much tough love I used to try to motivate myself, it just wasn’t going to get me out the door in the heat.  Several times I would open my front door, step outside, and immediately return to the cool safety of my basement which has doubled as my summer office.  The only option I could see was to wait until the sun disappeared behind the horizon and see if that would make a big enough difference.

I was amazed how much cooler it was right after sundown!  I mean the temperature didn’t actually drop all that much, but it felt so much cooler I immediately suited up and headed out.  From all my running during the winter months I know how much I hate running in the dark…but as soon as I started running I knew I had made the perfect decision for me.  I wish I could describe how different this run was compared to the last two disasters I’ve had this week.  I didn’t feel like I was encased in a heavy down comforter.  No, I felt like myself again.  Running without gasping for each breath.  Amazing.

Then, as I was headed up an all too familiar hill I missed something that was in the road.  Still not sure if it was a crack or a rock or what.  Whatever it was, I didn’t see it but my foot caught it and I fell down.  Hard.  This was not just a casual stumble…it was an all out fall to the ground.  Knee and hands first.  My first thought was “How am I going to finish my miles now?!?!”  But I was able to get up shake it off and keep going.

Here are some photos of the damage done:

And that brings me to now.  I’m laying in bed, sleepless.  I’m sure that it’s some combination of the endorphins from running too close to bed time and the awesome pounding I feel in my new wounds.  I’m kinda hoping that there is going to be some impressive bruises.  I like showing off battle scars.

This morning I checked the temperature and when I saw that it was 70 degrees I wanted to take advantage of the “cooler” air.  I set out with every intention of running 8 miles.  Before I even finished the first mile, I knew that I would need to switch gears and shift into recovery run mode.  The fronts of both my knees were a little ache-y and I was once again battling my arch nemesis: humidity.   I adjusted my running goals and resolved to get 4-5 miles in and not look at my paces.

Then Gigi’s battery died.  Perfect.

I thought about stopping right then.  I had done 3 miles and didn’t feel like finishing.  I pushed through and did what felt like another mile before finding my way home.

The rest of the day was spent in department meetings and class planning sessions and all kinds of back to school fun.  But seriously…if summer is actually coming to an end, someone needs to turn the thermometer down!  It’s only time for school when it’s fall.  Not fair to start in the sweltering heat of summer.

You know what though?  I’m starting to get more excited for the start of school.  Makes me feel like I’m maturing.  Right?  It works that way doesn’t it?

AKA: why I should have listened to my Dad.

Today, while I was running in 85 degrees with 70% humidity and not a cloud in the sky, I was kicking myself.  I spent 10 hours in the car yesterday driving home for the last time this summer.  The days leading up to it involved my family trying to convince me to stay for one more day and move my cross country trip to today.  The most appealing argument that was made was that I could then run my 15 miler on the treadmill on Sunday and then drive through my rest day on Monday.

Hindsight?  Totally should have done that.  And I know I’ll never hear the end of it.

I had every good intention of running my 15 miles this morning when it was suppose to be cooler.  And I’m sure that it was.  However the coolness of the air was masked by the torrential rain that was coming down.  But you know what?  I still wish I had run in the rain, cause nothing could have been worse than what I endured.

I texted my good running buddy KT to see if she was up for joining me for any part of my run.  She was up for biking with me, which turned out to be the only reason I was able to survive.  As soon as I got out of my car and felt the air, I knew it was going to be a long miserable run.  I decided that I would stop to take my gu every four miles, but that ended up not being enough to keep my heart rate and core temperature under control.  I ended up walking about a mile out of the 15 that I covered.  It was just plain wretched.  I felt like death.  The heat from the sun would have been bad enough, but the road had absorbed just enough of that heat to make the radiation from below just as intense as the rays from above.  I felt like I was running with an electric blanket wrapped around me.  My skin felt so weird.  Around mile 10 I got goosebumps…and a chill.  I’m sure that is not good.  So I walked.

UGH.  Even with the stopping and resting, my average heart rate was soaring.  I burned like 3x the number of calories that I normally do…

Note to self: when given the option, always run on the treadmill.  Always.  Oh, wait.  I have no treadmill.  And no access to a treadmill.  Sad day…

Good news?  Today was the coolest day of this week.  It’s going to be over 90 the rest of the week.  Awesome!

Two full weeks of marathon training: done!

This week’s workouts:
Sunday–13 miles with 8 @ marathon pace
Monday–3 recovery miles & Jazzercise
Tuesday–11 general miles & Jazzercise
Wednesday–5 recovery miles & Jazzercise
Thursday–8 miles with 4 @ 15k pace
Friday–Jazzercise

Total miles: 40

This was my last week away from home for the summer.  My last week with access to a treadmill.  My last week with such flexibility in my schedule.  Last week with 5:45am Jazzercise (tear).  Time to return to the streets of my hometown and where I will only have access to Jazzercise 2 or 3 times a week.  But it’s also time to get back to a regular schedule and start gearing up for the start of a new school year.  It’s all very exciting and mildly crazy…

I finally am at the point in my training cycle where I’m starting to repeat workouts that I’ve done before.  I’m really excited to be able to compare head to head and see if I’ve actually made any improvements over the past 6 months.  I know that my recovery runs have been at a faster pace with a lower heart rate, and that’s been encouraging.  I am more interested in how my marathon pace workouts and tempo runs go down.

Ok, confession time.  I am scared to death of “pace” workouts.  Anytime I’m supposed to sustain a specific pace over a specific distance I consider it in the “pace” category (i.e. marathon pace runs and/or tempo runs).  It’s kind of amusing to me, because I used to feel intimidated by the track and trying to do speed work.  Somehow over the past few months I’ve learned to enjoy the track and embrace the speed, but become more distressed about these pace runs.

After all that as a premise…on to the good news!  And the good news is in the numbers.  Today I did my first tempo run.  My prescribed pace is 7:50 min/mile.  All day yesterday I was thinking about it and when I woke up today I was already worrying.  So how did it go?

4 miles warm up @ 9:15
4 miles tempo @ 7:42

And it felt so amazing!  I was worried that I would be gasping for air and holding on to the treadmill for dear life.  But it was just fabulous.  In addition, I decided to look back and pull the numbers from the last time I did this workout: 4 miles at 8:16.  A 30 second difference!  So exciting.  And relieving.  I’m pretty sure that the next time I have to do a pace workout I will still struggle with my negative demons, but it feels so great to have won the victory today.

I don’t know what has gotten into me lately.  I am usually an ice-cream girl.  Lately however, I have been dying for cupcakes.  Mainly, I’m pretty sure that it’s about the frosting.  I’m currently resisting the desire to run out and buy a tub of butter cream frosting to eat directly from the container.  In Jazzercise yesterday, the instructor started talking about the cupcakes at Cold Stone.  Did we all know that there are cupcakes there?!?!  Cause I don’t believe that anyone told me…

check it:

Are you kidding me?  Chocolate shell, red velvet cake, fudge and cake batter ice cream, pink icing and sprinkles.  Seriously.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  Right now I’m fighting the urge by reminding myself that it will not be as good as my imagination is telling me it will be.

I guess today is a reminder that eating healthy is not as easy as I wish it would be…

Yes, I usually post my weekly training on Friday…Yes, I know that today is Monday…oh well.

Friday was a bit of a blur for me.  I finished up my stats class by 11:30 on Friday then I booked it out of there and arrived at my parents’ house in time to run my final 4 miles for the week before we piled into the truck and headed out for a weekend of camping.  This week I felt pretty hectic about trying to get my miles in.  I’m not exactly sure what takes over the practical, common sense side of my brain when marathon training is happening…I mean, I had a serious eye-situation that prevented me from running for a solid 36 hour period, but I was not going to let that keep me from meeting my weekly mileage goals.  I was told by a number of people that it was a legitimate situation and I could easily excuse myself from running the prescribed amount.  However I would not be dissuaded.  I had set a goal and could not get my mind to let go of that.  As a result, I ended up squeezing in miles whenever and however I could.  I did my set “workouts” but broke up a couple of the recovery runs as necessary.  It even called for a few “doubles” which I never do!

Here’s how it all went down:

Sunday–12 miles; 6 @ marathon pace
Monday–3 miles & Jazzercise
Tuesday–1/2 a Jazzercise class, then the attack of my eye
Wednesday–9 general miles & Jazzercise
Thursday–2 miles (am), 8 general miles (pm) & Jazzercise
Friday–2 miles (am), 4 recovery miles (pm) & Jazzercise

Total mileage: 40

A couple notes:

• All of the above mileage was on a treadmill.  It is too crazy hot in the midwest to try any of that outside.  Yes, I’m a pansy and yes when I go home I will not have the option of running in the airconditioning, but whatever.  I’m going to take advantage of it while I can.
• Yes, it does seem like a lot of exercising especially considering that I was also in class from 8:30-4:30 daily.  I made it work by going to the 5:45am Jazzercise class and then using my evenings for running and watching Friends on dvd.  I know that summer is fast coming to an end so I feel like I want to squeeze in every workout possible.  I know that once school starts my focus will be more split, so I want to go into the fall with as strong of a base as possible.
• Jazzercising in a new location is almost as fun as running in a new city.  There’s new people to meet and a whole new community to feel a part of.  I had so much fun visiting another center and taking advantage of the “free” access to classes anywhere once you’re a member.