Back to Life

I was looking at this blog on my phone and, when I re-started it earlier this year, I hid all the old posts. Not real reason why, they once were live, other than the fact that I consistently try to restart and to find a new beginning. As if one day I'll find the perfect start. But that's not how life goes and, if anything, the perfection in my running is the consistency. My blogging, for what that may be, is only the smallest snapshot of my running. I have written logs, lost logs and mental logs all over the place. And, what matters most, is that I've kept showing up no matter if it was blogged or not.

This year started off not the best in terms of the training. The first two weeks went fine but then things took a dive with travel and sicknesses. It took a while, really probably up to yesterday, to feel like I hadn't lost everything in the block (which is still so young but May will be here before you know it). So, when I was publishing my training from last week, I thought, just share all the past that you've created here. 

Training Week February 10th-16th

February 10th: Despite having no mileage really this weekend, I still kept today as a rest day. I’m starting to feel better in terms of the cold and so I’m hoping that I’m starting to finally get back on track and will be able to get into the training plan as scheduled soon.

February 11th: Today’s plan was 3 x 2 minutes two minutes one minute with one minute rest between at a 5K 10K pace. As I am still trying to be smart about my come back )don’t call to come back!) I kept with the pick ups, but did it only at 8:34 per minute pace. It didn’t feel that hard which was nice and it really shouldn’t feel that hard but you never know. I’m hoping to move things around with my coach this week, but still hit all of the goals for this week which is a little bit less than the original plan, but coming off of the last two weeks I’ve had I’m going to roll with it.

February 12th: Rest day! I do hope to get to a cross training day one day a week on the rest day, but I’m still being cautious about this return to the training block.

February 13th: I had today off for some house stuff so I knew I wanted to get my run in probably around lunchtime and thankfully that worked out with the plumber is leaving just before noon. On the schedule was 8 miles which included 1.5 mile warm up and cool down and 5 miles at marathon pace. I already planned to cut the warm up and cool down to 1 mile because 1.5 miles just sounded like too much. And I was aiming for the 5 miles at 8:00. Guess what? I did it! It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought and so far I’m still feeling okay. It was a nice ego boost to not feel like I have lost all time with the past three weeks. I’m proud of this and not as pessimistic as I was before. It’s a long road still, but here’s hoping that I am somewhat back on the track.

February 14th: I was supposed to run four but didn’t want to wake up early and we had dinner plans so this was an unplanned rest day.

February 15th: To make up some lost miles I went a little rogue doing a Peloton class (650th run with a shoutout) and actually followed the cues so this was faster and harder then scheduled but it was fun.

February 16th: We have some weather so I knew going into this weekend I was going to long run n the tread. On deck was 12 miles which I hit tread wise and 13.1 in my watch so the truth is likely closer to the 12. I actually didn’t feel terrible and managed two UCANs in stomach prep which is always an adventure. I’ll be happy to get outside one day but I’m not going to press in bad weather.

All in all I’m happy with how this week turned out with me finally feeling like I’m in a place to focus on my training plan. We’ll see how long this last as everyone is still sick and February and March’s weather tries anyone patience, but here we go.

Training Week February 3rd-9th

February 3rd: And we’re back! Over a week traveling and in Patagonia and home again. Patagonia was absolutely beautiful but, in terms of fitness, the polar opposite. I was able to do a few hike, including one that was ten miles, but then I got hit with a norovirus which made eating and physical movement hard. I’m not overly sad that I missed anything because it was actually relaxing once the nausea passed.

February 4th: And now we’re back again to some running. Easy four on the tread. Felt overall okay and nothing fancy.

February 5th: Rest day which was good due to some outside factors and the fact I think I’m getting sick.

February 6th: I’m still feeling so-so energy wise and, although this won’t be true for much longer, have some time before the hard work so I’m taking it easy. Today was planned for 6 miles with some 200 pickups but I did an easy 4 miles. My hope, with coach’s okay, is an easy run tomorrow, long run (10-12 miles Saturday) and tempo Sunday. This is all of my body can support that work. I also need to get MUCH better at food intake during the day as I’m under eating for sure.

February 7th: Well this training block is starting off with a very small bang. After Patagonia and noro, now I have a URI that is just sapping my energy. It doesn’t help that I’m right back to it at work. Today was planned 4 miles, I got in 3. I’m writing this post on February 8th which was supposed to be 12 miles and is now zero. My hope is to get 5-7 tomorrow and then just get this whole block regrouped.

February 8th: I did three miles today and that felt like enough. This is very frustrating but I’m trying to remember it’s very early in the block and to keep positive.