Disclaimer: my house is MESSY.
My training schedule got all turned around last week, because soccer games have started for my boys. I love soccer season, but I get considerably less rest this time of year (especially on weeks that the husband is working during the games, which is most of the time). Last week was the first week of games, and wow, I am tired. The trouble is I do not realize how tired I am until I cannot move at 8pm (or later) when we are finally home, and I have a 4:30 AM run calling my name. I am a night owl by nature, so I like to stay up and read or watch tv for a few hours when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet. Problem is, I am soccer mom marathon training, and sleep is critical. So while I can usually get myself out the door to run at dawn after a marathon of Downton Abbey that lasted until midnight the night before, by like 10 AM I am worthless!
I think this is the mental aspect of training. I ran my long run last Tuesday and then just wiped out. The next training run I had no desire to do despite it being only 3 easy miles. My pace was great, but the humidity was making me mad, the utility crews all over the place were making me mad, the people running on the wrong side of the road were making me REALLY mad. Do these people just want to get hit by a car? Do not run with traffic! Run against it! It won't help you on my street, where people will go out of their way to run you in the ditch, but elsewhere it is a very safe practice. Safety freaking first, y'all.
I have been doing very well with making better food choices and eating more frequently. My new goal is to start going to bed no later than 10 when I have to be up for an early morning training run. I worked on this last week and did considerably better on the 4 miler and last 3 miler of the week. The 3 miler was also an afternoon run (thanks soccer!) in the mid 90s and full sun. I took my time and advantage of a neighbor's sprinkler system and did pretty good!
Okay, not that sprinkler, though I am a fan. Also, it is pretty much what I felt like when I spotted the sprinklers.
Today I had to once again move my long run from Saturday to Tuesday. 10 miles, mid 70s, and super humid. It was overcast and I had a good breeze here and there. I came up with a plan to avoid carrying water and fuel. I used my front porch as a makeshift aid station.So about halfway through my run I stopped back at home, ate 3 honey stinger chews, downed some water, and off I went. The honey stingers did not upset my stomach, but I really couldn't tell if it helped my energy. I think I should have taken another 30 min later. Still working on the fueling technique. Overall it was a good run, and I am less tired this week than I was after last week's 9 miler. I didn't sleep great last night, so I abandoned the 5 am plan and slept until 6:30 and ran after the boys went to school. I am hoping to manage to get out earlier for the rest of this week's runs. Mainly to avoid poisoning myself running past the 1,450 tru-chem/green lawn/having-an-unnaturally-
So something fun coming up at the end of the month is The Color Run! I am normally way too cheap and paranoid about strange substances being shot at me while I run for something like this, but The Bestie talked me into it. She has been doing C25k and wanted this to be her first race. I am really excited to run this with her! We plan on wearing tutus and have a whole team doing it with us. I am happy to have a fun race to break up the monotony of training!
-Teacup Runner
"I can do all this through Him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13 NIV)
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