Training – Week 11 – Week 9 of Marathon Training – Monday – Frustration to Feeling Fine

What a run today. I always find it hard to get back to running solo after a race. This was even more of a challenge after the Bix 7 race when there was 15,000 runners all around.

I woke up early to run before the heat kicked in. I have to shuffle my original plan of running this week around as we will be heading back home to Indiana to see my parents. I have to make sure I get my long run in before heading out so this changes things up quite a bit. I have been working on slowly migrating my long run to the weekend after having those occurring during the week the last month or so. I need to get them back to the weekend as school starts for me next week.

This week I am scheduled for 39 miles of running. I would also like to get a few bike rides in this week and I HAVE TO get some core work in as I have been neglecting that lately.

Today I had a 7 mile run. My shins, calves, and that area from the calf to the ankle(I call it the “Cankle”) were very sore this morning. It hurt walking this morning.

The first few miles I felt terrible. I was mentally out of sorts, my body hurt, and I was breathing terrible. I just was not feeling it and I could not get into any sort of balance. I had some negative self talk about not being able to run 7 miles and basically I was just a mess. I quickly became frustrated for the weakness of my mind and feeling like crap after being so strong just two days prior.

I was also trying to teach my body to not depend on water and gel as often as I usually fuel myself. That was not helping matters. At 3.5 miles I grabbed some water, grabbed so chews, and decided to quit being a sissy and just run. Finally, at mile 4.5 where I had the nice rolling hill I despise I told myself to tackle that hill and just take it easy home. I destroyed the hill and from that point I felt great and just ran. I was breathing smooth and even, running faster, and finally enjoying what I was doing. I wanted to keep going at the end of mile 7, but I made myself stop to not overdo things.

During the run I had further frustrations as my water bottles kept flying out of my water belt. I had two bottles with me just in case I needed them. How frustrating to have to stop, turn around, grab a bottle, and then get back in rhythm. This happened three times and the last time was right in the middle of 18th street while I was sprinting between cars. I was ready to chuck those bad boys.

I went through a wide range of emotions during this run starting from frustration and anger with little bouts of further frustration with the water bottles to finally feeling really great and not wanting to stop. The joys of running! In the end I stuck to GETTING IT DONE!

I ran the 7 miles in 57:45 which is a 8:14 pace finishing the final mile in 7:22.

This morning I also ordered myself a Live Uncommon Shirt from the great organization and group of people over at www.liveuncommon.org. I am hoping to promote this at my building this year with staff and students and see if we can help promote the cause and get kids more involved in their health and lives. Another example of people working hard to GETTING IT DONE!