Training Week #14

This week is not as happy as the last.... Started off the week by taking a break on Monday. After the awesome 7 miler I did on Sunday my legs were pretty freaking tired. So I took it as a sign to rest and stretch.

Tuesday rolls around and Jenny and I headed out around Green Lake for a nice 4.5 mile run (since when do I think this is NICE?! I remember when I looked at the 1 mile on my schedule like a death trap!). Felt great the whole time until about the last mile. Started feeling a slight bit of tightness in my outer left knee. Nothing too crazy but it was definitely uncomfortable. The following day when I woke up it continued to give me some slight irritation, and so for my own well being I decided not to push it the rest of the week. Didn't run Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday/Saturday when my leg felt better I only went out for a walk. 

I will tell you that this SUCKED. After the training program I've been on for over 3 months having 3-4 days of pretty much NOTHING was just plain annoying. I felt trapped in the house, needed to have SOMETHING going on. It was just playing tricks on my mind!! But I know that pushing through an injury is not always a great idea. 

So Sunday morning rolls around and my knee is feeling good. No pain and so I headed out for my long run. Another 7 miler. I headed out and everything felt great. Around 1.5 miles in I felt a slight twinge in my left knee again, but it quickly passed and I continued on the run. Come to mile 3 and I have a pretty consistent twinge. Nothing major, nothing that makes me think whoa this hurts BAD I NEED to STOP! I get right at the start of mile 4, and my knee buckles slightly....and the pain starts. With this I stop....I walk it out a little and its got a pretty steady pain going through. I try stretching it, and then a slight jog....still painful. So I stop. 

Heading home to ice and elevate.....severely PISSED off. I mean come on! WHAT is going ON!? I'd rested it, I'd iced it, I'd elevated, stretched....everything I could do to give it time to recoop. And now its worse?! And what ticks me off even more is that overall I felt GREAT on the run. My stomach was great, my heart rate was great, breathing great, felt energized and ready to go! But my damn knee had different thoughts in mind. 

And I kinda wallowed in this for about an hour. Getting upset that after ALL of my hard work this was going to set me back. But I reminded myself that I had 6 weeks till race day. Better to rest it now than make it worse and really count myself out. So I bucked up and figured out an alternative. What could I do to keep myself from going stir crazy, get in a workout to keep up my cardio endurance so when I start running again I don't keel over. The Gym! Week 15 here I come!

Training Week #13 - Let FALL begin

So week 13 has turned out to be quite the week let me tell ya! After a beautiful sunny weekend with 85 degree weather in San Diego I returned to 60 degree weather (sometimes chillier) and rain.....oh. yay.

Needless to say our beautiful summer (or lack thereof) is gone, and we're now in full swing of Fall weather. Gotta get used to it though. Vegas in December...at NIGHT...going to be CHILLY..frigid even. So as much as I am tempted to go run on a treadmill inside (although I HATE treadmills), I will refrain and suck it up. Get tough!! It's all for the greater good right?!

Other than the chillier weather though the week went pretty damn smoothly. Monday evenings training was somewhat difficult as I'd been up since oh 4am getting ready to get on a plane return to Seattle, and put in a full days work. BUT I sucked it up and did a 6 mile bike ride. Not the original plan (I was GOING to run but that thought was somewhat painful as I sludged through my work day). The quads got a GREAT workout, and I felt good that I'd at least gotten a cross train in. Tuesday and Thursday were my run days. Getting in two great 4 mile runs. My pace on both days were sub 9 minute miles. Pretty damn good if I do say so myself! My timing seems to be getting better, but its not by anything that I'm specifically trying to do. I'm not forcing a faster pace it just seems to be coming in on its own. Wednesday and Saturday were hot yoga days....again I have to give my love for hot yoga a major shout out. I mean it really just cleanses me mind, body and spirit (Am I becoming a hippie? Has Seattle gone to my head????)

Sunday was the long run. First 7 miler of the training series. Jenny and I went out to Alki Beach (my most beloved spot for a run I must say), and somehow I pulled off one of the best runs I've EVER done. It was a pretty decent evening out. Not really too cold or windy (Thank GOD!). I had some pretty stupid stomach issues to deal with along the way but it didn't hinder my pace. I ended up at an 8:51 pace....ummm HOW?! No idea. It was my first 7 miler and yet somehow I managed to pull out a better average time than I had with any of my previous long runs.....will I take it?! YES!

Vegas looks so close yet so far still, but as I have no surpassed the halfway point in mileage I'm feeling more and more comfortable and confident at how the race will go.

Training Week #12 - 2 months till VEGAS!

This week's training did not necessarily go as well as I would've hoped. It didn't necessarily go BADLY, but I think my expectations were a little higher. I had planned to have 4 run days (totaling 18 miles) and a cross train day, with the long mileage being 6 miles. And those 6 miles were being run in San Diego.

Well I only had 3 run days and one walk day. After doing our 8 mile hike on Saturday, a 6 mile run on Sunday, I woke up Monday and decided that it was going to be a rest day. The body (and knee) needed some recovery time and I didn't want to push it too hard. Tuesday I set off as planned and ran my 4 miles. Feeling good but definitely could tell I was still tired from all the weekend activity. Wednesday was my walk night and just did a nice walk around the lake with mom. Thursday was supposed to be another 4 mile run, but around 2pm my body tanked on me. I was dizzy, lightheaded, and feeling sick to my stomach. I thought maybe I just hadn't eaten enough. Took down a granola bar. No help. Got home, took a little nap, and woke up still feeling the same. By about 6pm when nothing had changed I thought I should TRY to get something down. So I had some ground turkey meat and veggies I'd cooked the night before. Not kidding, two minutes after I took in the turkey I started feeling better. Apparently my body needed protein FAST! 

Needless to say even though I felt better I wasn't going to push it and try to run. But the next morning I woke up feeling great and didn't have to get into work until a little later so I did a quick 3 mile run. It was still rough. Given it was at 6:30 in the morning and very very cold. Probably shouldn't have pushed it so soon but that's a lesson to learn! 

Saturday was my attempted 6 miler in San Diego. I pulled out 5, which I have to say I'm pretty proud of. SD was WAY different than running in Seattle. Probably a lot of it was the mental factor. I'd been prebuilding that it was gonna be a rough run. So I think i MADE it rough. But it was also at 6:30 in the morning, after going out the evening before and having a few cocktails. It was also VERY humid that morning. By 6:30 there was no marine layer at the beach and was bright and sunshiny. I loved it don't get me wrong, but made for a more interesting run. 

So the week was not as successful as it could've been, but overall still pretty good. And given that I seemed to have exhausted myself the weekend before I think I was wise not to push it too hard and risk injury. This week also marked the end of basically 3 months of consistent training. WOOT WOOT! 2 months (and a week technically) to go!! Vegas baby!