Alternate Title: “Life, or How I Didn’t Run for Almost Two Weeks During What Should Have Been the Peak of Training”
(Today’s raffle winners are Matt W. and Molly G. I’ve e-mailed for prize selection!)
Week 10
what was supposed to happen what actually happened
Mon – 5 miles easy, strength rest
Tues – 6 x 800 w/ 400 recovery, rest
1/2 mile w/u & c/d
Weds – cross train rest
Thurs – 4 miles easy, strength rest
Fri – rest rest
Sat – 13 miles rest
Sun – rest rest
This week was the perfect storm of excuses plus events getting in the way of exercise. Monday I was absolutely exhausted after work, and I told myself I could miss the scheduled workout as long as I got up before work and ran the next morning. Of course, that always makes more sense the night before than the morning of when the alarm goes off. At 5AM, unless I have a plane to catch, my brain pretty much always thinks that sleep is more important than everything else and resets the alarm. So, that didn’t happen.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the A’s had home playoff games, and we had tickets. It was pretty much work->baseball->sleep for two days, with nothing else in between, and then Thursday I left the game early to catch a red eye to New York for a somewhat last minute work trip.
I spent Friday walking around Manhattan and Brooklyn, so at least that was a little exercise. Since I had barely slept though, I was a little bit of a zombie. I planned to run a loop around Central Park Saturday morning before my work event, but since I was still mostly on west coast time I didn’t get to bed as early as hoped, and again needed the extra sleep more than I needed the run, which was sad since it meant I didn’t see Central Park at all.
On Sunday I flew to Reno to meet up with Dave and a friend, again in a very much zombie-like state. We drove home Monday, and needless to say I was too exhausted to do anything other than regroup and try to plan for the coming week. That week was a little crazy!
Week 11
what was supposed to happen what actually happened
Mon – 5 miles easy, strength rest
Tues – 10 x 400 w/ 200 recovery, rest
1/2 mile w/u & c/d
Weds – cross train rest
Thurs – 4 miles easy, strength rest
Fri – rest 5K (3.1 miles)
Sat – 9 miles 8 miles
Sun – rest rest
I went back to work on Tuesday theoretically rested and ready to get back into my routine, and dedicated to getting a run in, since I had missed over a week. That afternoon though, I started feeling ill – head ache-ey, hot and chilly at the same time, and a little bit of a sore throat. I left work early to rest, and ended up staying home sick Wednesday as well. Thursday I felt mostly better, but the Niners were playing right after work and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to rest one more day to get back to 100% healthy.
On Friday, I was finally ready and itching to run! I was scheduled to rest since it was the day before a long run, but I really wanted to get out there and move my legs, and it was also my only chance to participate in the Cupcake Classic Virtual 5K. I had never participated in a virtual race before, and I know the point of this one was kind of to get together with a group, but I decided to head downtown solo.
It felt awkward at beginning since it had been a while since I ran. I started to feel better and more natural during the second mile and let my legs go a little, probably too fast. My time for the second mile was 11:04, quite fast for me. I slowed down at the beginning of the third mile to conserve some energy and planned to pick it back up for last half mile, but my leg started to hurt and didn’t want to push it, so I kept it kind of easy until the end. My total time was 35:11, for an average of 11:19 per mile, which is quite good for me! It was a little bit of an affirmation to remember that I can run a 5K whenever I want, even after some time without running.
On Saturday I set out for nine miles and vowed to take it easy the whole time no matter how I felt. The first few miles felt sluggish, but I was feeling decent by the third and fourth miles. I started to feel discomfort in my knee around mile 6. Discomfort, I can deal with as long as it’s not too bad. However, in the eighth mile my hip and the ball of my left foot started to hurt, bad enough that it was making me a little nauseated, so I stopped at 8 miles.
The Vegan Weight Watcher 
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