Training recap – September 17-22

Oh, that race was a BLAST.  I’ve been on a high all week.  I even turned my finisher medal into my keychain charm.  But I was ready for a break – no thinking about training, about mile counts, about remembering to take my antihistamines at night so I could run the next day.

The plan was:  absolutely nothing.

The reality: 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – ZILCH

I started the week in rest mode – at least for exercise, because everything else (aka work) was nuts.  I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I would be (gee, could I have run faster on Sunday?  Guess I’ll have to do another and find out, huh?), just a bit of tightness in the quads going down stairs.  By Tuesday it had nearly dissipated and Wednesday I felt completely normal.  And I was so very much done with resting.

Thursday – 3.0 miles, 28:14

By now I desperately needed to run.  But I realized on the way over that (a) I still don’t have the eating-in-the-afternoon-for-an-evening-run thing organized and (b) I’d been giving my body a break from the antihistamines that keep me from itching on a run.  So… this was going to be interesting.

I decided to keep the pace easy, so as not to trigger the itchies, and just got going.  It felt pretty good – it actually felt odd, like my body was made of stiff parts with no give, and clompy, as though I’d forgotten how to run.  But I’m getting used to this feeling being my “oh, you took a few days off? Silly you” feeling and am gaining confidence to stick to it with the hope that it will dissipate.  Which it did, pretty shortly.

But here’s the thing – what feels like an easy pace now has dropped to 9:15-9:30 miles.  Again, when did this happen???  Yet another reset for my head this year (there’s been a LOT of those – I love it, but I know intellectually this can’t continue forever).  Got a tiny bit of itchies on my legs about 2.5 miles in, but I walked for a bit and it faded quickly, so then I finished out the 3 miles and walked in the last few hundred yards.  That 2.5 mile point is also when my body decided it was hungry.  And I mean HUNGRY.  I found myself craving french fries as I walked back to the car… and since there were 45 minutes until the boy was done with his practice, I jetted out to grab burgers, fries and a chocolate milkshake.  It was SO YUMMY – not at all healthy, not at all good nutrition, but a nice treat all around.  And I TOTALLY made the boy’s day when he got to the car and saw a sack with burgers and fries – “oh, Mom, I LOVE YOU!!!” “You love me anyway.”  “Yeah, I love you more. Nom nom nom”

Saturday – 3.16 miles, 34:38

Back at it with the Math Teacher.  She was cranking on speed and feeling good!  Me, I was pretty tired (read, nutty week at work) and ran out of steam as we approached the 3 mile split.  I told her I was stopping when my watch chirped, and she went all Coach on me – “oh, no you’re not!  We’re making it to the finish!  Let’s go, step it up, woman!”  I truly think she enjoyed it, with a lot of schaudenfraudic glee.  She was also talking about the next run, suggesting a local race in early November.  I may have to commit to that – she did, after all, indulge me on You Go Girl, least I can do is repay the indulgence.  We might even get our kids to run that one too – if we can fit it around their swim training.  Lots to determine in the next several days.

Planned for this week:

 

If – big “if” – I commit to the Turn Back the Clock run, I need to start training for that – it’s six weeks away.  So this weekend’s task is to find an appropriate 6-week training schedule toward a … 5K? 10K? I suppose I also have to decide what distance to run, and whether anyone (ie son, hubby) intends to join me.  So… likely a few short easy runs and some decisions.