all i want for christmas is sleep

After an amazing week of running, now a tough one.  Its hard to take one's proverbial foot off of the gas pedal when things appear to be going well, but this week was about survival, not running fast.  The sleep deprivation was already getting pretty bad towards the end of last week, and I did not recuperate properly in Napa (maybe 7-8 hours a night, not enough to undo the damage of all nighters) then I got hit right off the bat with another all nighter upon my return.  Since then its just been touch and go... most days I got two naps instead of any consolidated sleep.  Most runs were done late a night after nap #1.

Needless to say, I am not feeling super well... and that has percolated into my running as well.  That said, I think it was still a win to get in some solid miles this week.  Everything was survived, now hoping to rest, recover, and do plenty of PT and core strengthening over break!

Sunday 12/11/2011:  Rose Villa / San Gabriel / Lombardy / Hill (4.65 miles), 37:43 (8:07 pace).  Did not get a chance to run again in Napa before we left.  Feeling totally wiped out and facing another all nighter, I elected to do a "better than nothing" jog, instead of the intended Sunday Long Run.  This route is rapidly becoming my recovery jog route.  This one was a lot slower than intended, but frankly, I just could not be bothered to go any faster today.

Monday 12/12/2011:  Completely off.  Honestly don't even remember what happened today, other than that I didn't get fired, despite the fact that the all nighter wasn't enough to completely finish my project.  I'm pretty sure I spent the entire day in a fog, and then had to take an emergency nap in the evening.  I think that's how I got started on the 2 naps a day / no consolidated sleep schedule, because then I had to get up and work late again, resulting in another short nap before getting up early in the morning.... wash, rinse, repeat until all deliverables are complete.

Tuesday 12/13/2011:  Rose Villa / Rosemead / California / Hill (7.0 miles), 50:10 (7:11 pace).  This one was really really late at night, so much so that I slightly feared for my safety but it turned out alright.  Feel like I've been hit by a bus.  Tuesday was supposed to be tempo... but kept a relaxing pace for most of it.  Tried to tempo a little bit on the way back and failed.  As in, I was breathing hard, but not going fast.  That's like the opposite of a tempo.  Fail!

Wednesday 12/14/2011: Huntington / Oak Knoll from Chester (7.6 miles), 56:54 (7:30 pace).  An easy late night jog.  Wanted to check out the Huntington median, brought head lamp.  Road debris was much improved... I guess this is a higher priority for San Marino than it is for Pasadena.  Grass section felt good... really made me miss trails, meh.  A nice run.

Thursday 12/15/2011:  Another completely off.  Was intending to go to swim practice, but didn't quite make it in time.  Decided instead to allocate the time to baking cookies for Swim Club Holiday Party tomorrow.  New recipe, woohoo!

Friday 12/16/2011:  2 x Rose Bowl Loop (Non-tempo 10K), 44:17 (7:08 pace).  Had to squeeze this in before the holiday party.  Allergy shots this morning, so I was feeling wheezy all day... but I secretly kinda hoped I could crank out a tempo... er, false, M, false.  Did the first lap pretty easy, feeling good, but was sort of horrified to see the 22:15 5K split and decided that it would not be productive to do a tempo today.  Then, I felt tired the entire second lap.  Its so weird how big of a psychological effect seeing that first lap split is for me.  Last week, I felt crappy, but saw the fast split and suddenly felt energized and awesome.  This week, I felt good, but saw the slow split and then suddenly it felt like lead bricks got added to my feet.  I know that I should just give myself a break.  I still haven't gotten a solid night of sleep, and its really starting to break me down physically... its clear why I can't tempo and why its not productive to try right now... but I can't help but feel like I'm losing fitness by skipping a week!

Saturday 12/17/2011:  Patrician (10 miles), 1:15:30 (7:33 pace).  Hills, hills, hills.  Patrician probably wasn’t the best way to ease into some longer runs, but I wanted to do a 10 miler, and this was the first thing that popped into my mind.  Honestly I had hoped it would be a little bit faster, but in retrospect I think I underestimated those hills.  Garmin says that I was positively crawling on that middle section of Patrician Way.  Legs actually felt decent, but the breathing was pretty choppy on the climbs.  I guess I just haven’t done a lot of hills recently.  But on the plus side, the longer distance felt totally manageable, didn’t feel particularly wiped out at the end.  Finished strong with a 6:40 last mile (slightly downhill, I think).

Week #7 Total:  35.45 miles, a little slow this week but still a solid week of training!