house of cards

Week two blues... historically, the second week is the hardest, because you're no longer "well rested" but you haven't appreciably gained fitness.  This feels different though, physically I actually feel pretty strong, at least pertaining to running.  Running every other day more or less preserves the "well rested" feeling, I guess.  I think this week, the general life funk that I'm feeling is just bleeding over into my running. 

Though in reality, this feeling that everything is on the verge of crashing to the ground in one fell swoop is something I legitimately still need to worry about with running (among... other things).  These first few runs have felt good, but my feet still feel much more rickety than I'd like, and I'm not convinced of a solidly upward trend quite yet.

Sunday 11/06/2011:  1 x Washington Park Loop (3.6 miles, Denver), 27:10 (7:33 pace), this run was all sorts of disaster... Ran the first 8 minutes or so at an uncomfortable pace in order to warn Peter of the toilet overflow disaster... then snailed along the rest of the way.  Since I forgot the Garmin on this trip, it is not clear exactly what happened, but all I know is that I much prefer the feeling of negative split runs.  Oh, well.

Monday 11/07/2011:  AM:  travel home, had to fly in steerage for the first time in several years!  PM:  4450 yards in the pool.  Wish I could figure out how to fix the snailing... but maybe the 3 days off did me good, because at least my shoulders didn't feel quite so achey. PF felt great yesterday but a little sore today... not sure if something is wrong, or if it is because I overdid the golf ball arch rolling, per Andre's warning... meh.

Tuesday 11/08/2011:  Monterrey to Second Bridge (4.6 miles), 33:01 (7:11 pace), this was actually a solid "put a smile on your face" sort of a great run!  Enjoying the extra oxygen here, feeling strong and smooth.  It got pretty dark at the end though, so the footing was a bit sketchy in the last stretch, but no complaints here.  A nice lady in the Arroyo told me I was speedy and my form looked great, which I actually really really appreciated, especially after the mess that's been the past 2 months.  4100 yards in the pool afterwards, low-ish yardage day but there was some hard stuff in there.

Wednesday 11/09/2011:  Unexpected completely off day.  I've been feeling really terrible with respect to swimming for the past few weeks, but the plan was to try to hang on until I got a little bit of a break when I went home for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, I realized I just wouldn't make it 2 more weeks when I found myself unable to pay attention in class today because my arms and shoulders were so painful.  Like not the sore, "good" tired... but like a warm, inflamed, aching feeling.  Ugh, I don't know.

Thursday 11/10/2011:  Monterrey to Second Bridge (4.6 miles), 33:41 (7:19 pace), hungry, dehydrated and grumpy today.  Legs just felt really weak.  Also, strange pain in L ankle didn't work itself out for the first mile... that didn't help either.  I guess not every run can be a good run...  Also, felt cold and tired.  Took a nap afterward instead of swim practice.

Friday 11/11/2011:  Rose Villa/San Gabriel/Lombardy (4.65 miles), 35:20 (7:36 pace), a nice, relaxed semi-dark run around the neighborhood.  I so heart my Newtons.  Both PF a little sore, but this was a pleasant run.  Day off from work due to Veteran's Day.  It would have been a really nice day except for that a poorly stacked display of pumpkin puree cans fell on my foot, and the casualty was my right big toe.  At first it looked completely fine, but then 5 minutes later I looked down and there was just blood everywhere!  Ugh.... blood has still been oozing out from the periphery of the nail all day, but I patched it up with some gauze for the run.  Fortunately it doesn't hurt on the bottom of the toe, so it didn't affect my run... but I'm moderately concerned about the potential for infection.   Bah, humbug!

Saturday 11/12/2011:   Ah, the sign of failure... completely off day #2... :(  Decided to keep the Franken-toe out of the pool as a public service, and to be prudent in not running 3 days in a row at this juncture.  So, on my ass I do sit.  It's been weeks now since the secondaries have been submitted, but I still feel as though I've been hit by a bus.  I wish at some point I could stop feeling like I need 15 hours of sleep per day. 

Week #2 Total:  17.45 miles, still of decent quality.  At least the mileage ramp so far is going faster than before, and I've gained the ability to run on pavement.  Two things to be encouraged by!