This week. *SIGH* This week…was one big roller coaster. It started…going downhill…fast. Forget the climb. There was no climb. There was just this screaming, falling, helpless feeling that just sort of paralyzes you. But by the end of the week, save for having no one to long run with to pass the time, things were starting to turn around.
The highlight of the week…the cooler temperatures and lower humidity.
It was amazing.
And I think that’s why when Monday went off the rails…I couldn’t figure out a good reason for it. So, my coach and I are blazing a new path this coming week…so stay tuned for something completely different.
Until then…let’s take the plunge and then slowly climb out of the pit that was…this past week.
Monday: My Monday run is always a recovery run. Usually between 5-7 miles. And I always run it really well. Relaxed. Easy. Legs feeling good after a weekend of mileage demands. This run started off feeling harder than the pace reflected. I chalked it up to not being fully recovered from two long runs (both with a bit of a workout element to them…the harder one being the 3×4 miles in the middle of 15 miles on Sunday) that were done in Extreme Heat. It was one of the worst and hardest runs I have had in a very long time. Every mile got considerably slower. And, when all was said and done, I cut the run short by a mile and called it a day. I had a hard time accepting it. And it ate at me the rest of that day. I did my additional hip strengtheners with my stretches that morning and had personal training. And still…I couldn’t let it go. It wasn’t that my overall pace was slower than I prefer. Not at all. It was how hard the whole run felt when it was supposed to be easy. I felt like I was pushing pace and the pace wasn’t coming, but instead slowing down…mile after mile. It’s hard for me to let go of bad runs…and this was one of my worst.
Tuesday: Speed Work. The fresh hell that hits every week. I dread it. But I know it’s beneficial and will make me faster in the end. This week was the Flat Pyramid. I was to do a 1 mile warm up, then 400m-800m-1600m-1600m-800m-400m with 400m-800m recovery in between each one. This wasn’t too bad. The temperature that morning was once again…perfect. My left calf felt tight, but I figured it would loosen up. I felt like I was rolling on this one. But when my runs were done, my second 1600 was just CRAP. For real. Everything was actually slower than I felt they should have been. I wasn’t having it. It made me feel even worse coming off of the crash-and-burn run from Monday. I figured I should have been recovered by Tuesday. It was 7.5 messy miles. And I wasn’t happy. I let my coach know.
Wednesday: Easy, recovery miles. 3-4 of them. With the week I was having, I wasn’t holding my breath that this would feel good at all. But, something was different this morning. I managed to have a decent run. The entire thing felt easy. Right at base pace. Two of my miles were faster than I anticipated, but I wrapped up the run and I felt good. I felt like I was turning a corner. No personal training because my trainer had much more important things happening…but I did my additional hip strengtheners again with my daily stretches that morning. My coach wrote me back and said it seemed like I had just come out of a mental block and was back into one. He asked me some questions, and that resulted in a very long, very honest, very vulnerable response from me as to what I feel was going on.
Thursday: Speed Work day 2 and my coach was changing up the Tempo Run this week. After struggling time after time to hit the ladder tempos, he had me running the same amount hard, but this time with just 2 miles in each one. So 1 mile warm up, 3×2 miles with 0.5 miles recovery between, 1 mile cool down. I ended up grabbing a wrist band and covering my watch face. I didn’t set the pace intensity into the workout on my watch. I decided that it would be what it was that day. And I ran it well. I had to stop for a lot of traffic that morning. And I needed to stretch out my calf a couple of times ( that, btw, feels much better), but it was an impressive run. One that I was happy with. I hit the usual tempo pace he wants me to aim for and I didn’t obsess over it or consistently check my watch. No pressure. No expectations. I just let this one ride. And it worked. 9.5 miles with 6 of them at the proper tempo pace. YES!
Friday: Rest day. Recovery. Sleep in. Except…I haven’t been sleeping well. Which sucks. I didn’t get to stretch and then chill and read like I would have liked. But I did my best to relax. I checked in with people about long runs, both of which weren’t going to be able to run with me this weekend. It was also a half day at work. The original plan was to grab an easy lunch…maybe get grocery shopping done…My roommate and I did grab lunch and headed home. We ran some easy errands instead of going grocery shopping. But we did turn on Designated Survivor before I was going to cook dinner. Except, with 7 minutes left in the episode…the power randomly went out. I was 7 minutes away from cooking dinner. Power wasn’t back on by 5:30 (over an hour after it went out)…so we ended up having to go out to eat…again. We ended up at Dragon King’s Daughter for sushi. Sushi is one of my favorite pre-race, pre-long run meals. This was fine with me. It was just an unexpected expense that night.
Saturday: LONG RUN! I had a goal of 17-19 on the training plan. With the awful start to my week, I mentioned to my roommate that I was going to head out early and aim for 19…but I’d be fine if I just did 17. I used the Maurten 320 Drink Mix for the first time…and LOVED IT. I never crashed on this run. I felt strong the entire time. And yes…I managed 19 solo miles…and my pace stayed pretty consistent and even throughout. No stomach issues. I didn’t want to quit. I didn’t need to randomly stop just to breathe or berate myself for stopping. It was smooth. It was the run I needed to round out the week. And I felt good the rest of the day…refueling, recovering, and…finally grocery shopping (and shopping for my vacation in September too).
Sunday: Recovery run. 4 miles. Same run I did last week. It felt good. I ran a lot of hills on Saturday in my long run, and my legs were definitely feeling that, especially as I tackled one of my least favorite hills along the way. But, this run was exactly what it was supposed to be…easy, slow, recovery. And I got some great sunrise views (again…not sleeping well…so hopefully that changes this week).
So, yeah…this week started off rough, but it definitely ended on a high note. That being said, my coach is taking a WAY different approach with me this week in hopes of giving me the compete reset I need to get back into a proper mindset as I head into my fall marathon. Wish me luck. And stay tuned. Because, honestly, I think this is going to be fun.
The Celiathlete 