Restructuring: More focus, more discipline, more sleep.
Okay, so Wednesday - Sunday was crappy... but I can salvage this. The bottom line is that I'm wearing a lot of different hats these days: embattled non profit employee, daughter, long distance girlfriend, severely allergic and injury prone person, manager, friend, property owner (which, as it turns out is about as fun as when you spend your last $100 on a hotel on Boardwalk that no one lands on and then you pick that Chance? card that charges you repairs on all of your properties) ... but anyways, the point is that there's not a lot of room for error. To train seriously and also balance everything else requires a lot of discipline... and when that starts to slip, the running starts to go bad too.
Discipline isn't just about doing your workouts and managing your time... for me it's also about managing stress, controlling my emotions and rolling with the punches. It's about getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet and making smart decisions about running. Honestly, I haven't been doing ANY of that in the past 5 days, and I can tell that it's costing me. First and foremost, I want to enjoy my runs, I want to look forwards to getting out the door in the morning, instead of being stressed and worried and exhausted by it. I'm not off to a super good start this week... but I can get back on the happy life ball.
Sunday 09/07: 1:33:05, Stables to RB. You know, not really the way I wanted to start off my "let's be disciplined and make good decisions" reformation week... but gotta keep at it. Woke up SUPER late, didn't get out there until 8, and it was sunny and hot and all the weird people were already out... like three fat middle aged ladies wearing skintight pink "McCain Palin" wifebeaters. So, this is the demographic that they appeal to.... interesting... and... slightly terrifying.
Anyways, felt completely beat from yesterday complete with cramped shoulders from moving, and that awful dull achey feeling all through my legs that happens after you go lactic for too long. Felt like a Colorado run... it was so slow and painful. In hindsight I should have done a short run today, and moved the long run to Tuesday, but who says making good decisions was ever easy!
Monday 09/08: Off, shots. Ughh... calamity of the world! My pomegranite vinegar salad dressing leaked all over my trunk, which was then vaporized by the car sitting out in the school parking lot all day, and completely infused into ever inch of my car by the time I had to go home... it totally burned my eyes and nose. Still felt horrible and sneezy/drooly/congested by the time I went to sleep. Glaghalgahglahgalhga...
Tuesday 09/09: 49:27, Monterrey Recovery Loop, super super easy in the nice AM clouds. I suppose if one must be technical, this was more like 20 minutes of sleepwalking and 30 minutes of jogging. Felt pretty much like death today from too much consecutive sleep deprivation, 3 straight days of moving and two ill advised weekend runs. Blech. I rememebered from my Bain days that sometimes slow running will clear out some of the deathly feeling... and I felt moderately well enough to face the day by the time I finished. But see, I made a good training decision today! Now off to claim my first night of good sleep in about a week.
Wednesday 09/10: 58:46, RB to yellow gate at JPL. A nice run. Finally got something vaguely resembling a good night's sleep, and the mental haze is starting to lift! Felt a little bit crampy and tired still in the beginning, but started feeling really good after the devil's gate portion. L knee a bit tweaked out, was worried but it worked itself out. Ran a good solid, but not difficult pace throughout.
Thursday 09/11: 59:37, Monterrey to RB, working in 4 x 4-5 minute intervals of higher intensity running. It wasn't particularly planned this way, but I think it ended up being somewhat akin to 5 on, 5 off. The interval parts were definitely run closer to race pace than tempo pace, but I had full recovery, and they felt good, controlled. The first one felt like the toughest, just because it was kind of like readjusting one's expectations for how running should feel. I think I've gotten a little too used to low HR training... the change of pace was good for me, without it being tiring. Felt good about this run.
Friday 09/12: Off, shots. Somehow ended up staying up pretty late organizing stuff at the new place. Also ate two cookies... stress and moving are really not conducive to healthy eating habits.
Saturday 09/13: 1:09:29, California plus RB perimeter... a generous description for today's run would be "abysmal". Was supposed to be easy to RB, then RB perimeter loop at maybe a pace a little bit under tempo and then easy back the rest of the way. For some reason felt pretty dull and out of it from the beginning, and it certainly didn't help my mood to get passed by a hoard of Run with Us people. The uptempo part was the worst... somehow I took the first kind of squishy woodchips slightly uphill part too hard and felt pretty horrible by the river crossing. The total was about 36 minutes, which is slower than it took me to run this loop at a much, much lower exertion level a month or two back. How absolutely horrifying.
Training this week: 5:19:24, a pretty tame week I'd say...
Goals: to... survive...
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