One day at a time...

10/18/2009 - 10/24/2009 (Week 8)

I've decided that the biggest issue for me with injuries is the loss of motivation, ergo the loss of momentum. The damage is more psychological than it is physical, and so I've decided that the key for me right now is just to re-establish the habit of running again.

Just take it one day at a time, rather than try to increase distance, or stress out about mileage, I feel like the key is just to run as many days as possible. The more days that I sleep in, the worse I feel, both physically and mentally. Consistency is key. Okay, here we go now:


Sunday: 5.2 miles, 42:49 (21:06/21:43) 2 x Washington Park Loops (8:14 min/mile)

After yesterday, I didn't really feel like I had 3 laps in me, so I decided to just do 2 and not feel bad about it. Felt better than yesterday, but still felt kind of buggered about the pace... maybe its not really a pace issue, actually its an endurance issue. The first lap felt fine... I also had someone to run with. I forgot what his name was, but we kept passing eachother back and forth so finally I decided to run next to him to avoid the competition. He was nice, but he was only doing one lap, so I think I slowed down a lot after he left.

Monday: Off, travel. Feeling lousy, not sure why, since I got a lot of sleep this weekend.

Tuesday: 6 miles, 47:25 Hillcrest, Orlando, Allen (7:58 min/mile)

Woke up feeling really beat, legs feeling really heavy... but force of habit is strong, it's Tuesday, so I figured that I should try to run a little faster than usual. Unfortunately my body just wouldn't go today. I felt like I expended an inordinate amount of effort not to get anywhere. My shoe came untied at Lake/California and I caught a glimpse of my watch. Seeing that I was 30 second behind last week's split, despite having worked a lot harder, I became discouraged and jogged the rest of it in. Bah, humbug.

Wednesday: 7.1 miles, 1:00:27 from Monterrey to RB (8:31 min/mile)

Hard to get up again, but was glad to make it on this nice, easy run. Was hoping it would be a little faster, but it felt good to take it easy after a few days where running felt more like struggling.

Thursday: 6.5 miles, 50:21 Hillcrest, Orlando, San Marino (7:45 min/mile)

An excellent night run in between baking a delicious chocolate cake. I kinda remembered what good base runs used to feel like today... I started off at a nice, controlled medium pace, and then pushed a little harder towards the end. That last part from Los Robles back to home always feels like a chore, so I tend to push through it. Felt good. Wish there were more runs like this.

Friday: Off, shots. Giving the hip and the feet and whatnot a precautionary day off by not trying to cram in a night run.

Saturday: 6.7 miles, 59:40 RB Perimeter to yellow gate at JPL (8:54 min/mile)

Good grief, I honestly don't know what happened here. I felt like I was going an "easy" pace, but it didn't feel like it was THAT slow. I also felt really wiped out on anything that went uphill, which meant that I really really struggled on the climb over the reservoir. I was so freaked out that I re-mapped this route immediately when I got home. Unfortunately, I didn't find a magical half mile or so that I forgot to measure... so I spent the rest of the evening feeling unsettled and irate.


Week total: 31.5 miles, some good, some bad... but making some progress!