I had planned all week to get out this morning and run my 18 miler. However, last night I felt terrible. My allergies were flaring up and I bet I easily sneezed 200 times yesterday. In addition to my allergies my office at school is where all the mold issues were several years back. Ever since I moved into that office I have felt like crap. Within a half hour of being in that room I get all congested and a terrible headache. As soon as I leave school for the day I usually feel much better once I am home. Friday the combination of whatever is in my office and my allergies proved to be a double whammy. My body was in rough shape and I just needed some sleep.
So, I slept in today and woke up at 6:30 feeling much better. I started my day with Ava which I am not sure you can start your day any better than seeing her and her four chins smiling at you. My ankle was feeling much better after not being able to finish my run yesterday(I really think I just laced my shoes up too tight because my foot felt fine all yesterday).
I switched up my running days and today I went for the 4 mile run today and I will do the 18 mile run tomorrow morning. My body felt really good today. I have a hard time getting motivated to run the shorter runs and the only way I have found to work to get me out the door is to push myself a little bit. Today I did just that. I made sure I stayed at a pace where I could still speak, but I was also increasing the heart rate a little bit also.
I started off easy with mile 1 at 8:05. It was nice and warm out so my body warmed up quickly. Mile 2 I picked the pace up to 7:33 and it did not feel any tougher. Mile 3 I ran 7:25 still feeling quite good. I finished up the run with mile 4 at 7:12. Total run time was 30:20 for a 7:34 mile pace.
When I finished I was barely breathing hard and my heart rate was back to normal very quickly. Running these four miles I could not help but think about running the Moonlight Chase again to see if I could achieve my goal, but I will have to wait until next year.
The body and mind are back to a great place right now. I will be up early for my 18 mile run. I had thought about scaling this run back, but the more I think about it the more I know I need to get these miles in for my mental training. The race is getting very close. It is not close enough yet to taper, but too soon to change things up.
My biggest challenge for the next three weeks is my nutrition and eating. Being back at school I have fallen off on eating properly. I come home after school and just raid the pantry. I destroy all sugar and carbs like they are the last ones on earth. I really need to dial in my food intake focusing on eating healthy all the time. I would like to drop a few more pounds of fat before the race just to be at a more desirable weight. I will be working hard these next 20+ days GETTING IT DONE! to achieve my goal.
Have a great rest of the weekend and wish me luck in my Fantasy Football draft tonight. I am so clueless about the NFL right now it is ridiculous.
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