Last week. Oh, last week. I kinda, sorta wish I could wipe last week from my memory. It was icky germ-fest around here, and the weather wasn’t great. I was stuck inside, my son didn’t go to school for almost the entire week. It was just. Ick. I slept in the guest room for the week, used a separate bathroom. Let me just say, I’m more than thankful last week is done. My hands are still raw from all the hand washing I was doing.
I was so looking forward to my long run on the weekend — which happened, but much differently than was originally planned.
Despite all that, I managed to get most of my training runs in without too much complaint (ha, lies!). Here’s how it went:
Tuesday — 4 miles+HIIT and ITB rehab
My first run of the week was fairly decent. The treadmill is such a mental game for me. I seriously can’t handle it sometimes. Overall this was a pretty great run, though. Negative splits and all! Plus I finished up the day with a HIIT workout and my IT band rehab, so it was a pretty good day.
Wednesday — 5 miles
Wednesday was less good. Here are my workout notes to my coach: “Seriously. Treadmill!!!! Gah!!!! I kept stopping and starting, trying to maintain focus.”
Did I mention I also chafed? I was diligent about Body Glide usage during training last winter but I apparently blocked it from my memory because I completely forgot and paid the price. Oops.
Thursday — 3 miles
Thursday was the WORST! I woke up around 2:30 am on Thursday and couldn’t go back to sleep. My back was killing me. I was achy. I thought it was just because I was uncomfortable. I finally took ibuprofen around 3 am and fell asleep shortly after. I was up for about an hour tossing and turning, though.
When my alarm went off at 6 am, I got out of bed (slowly, of course), and ran my three miles on the treadmill. For some reason, this run was much harder than it had been all week. I chalked it up to generalized fatigue from 5 miles the day before and my lack of decent sleep. But I also knew better — a bad night’s sleep really doesn’t affect the quality of my workouts (unless it’s really bad).
When I had to stop at mile 2 and really talk myself into continuing on, I realized I was battling some major fatigue. Something was not right. Well, I finished my run and plodded downstairs to see my husband. I told him if I weren’t so sweaty I would just go right back to bed. Something was just not right.
It turns out I had a fever. I showered and did go back to bed. My husband stayed home. I slept for almost the entire day. And the entire night. During my waking hours I laid in bed and caught up with my podcasts. When they were finished, I would promptly fall back to sleep.
Friday — 0 miles
On Friday I was feeling a little better. Not 100%. But my son went back to school and I could veg out essentially all day while my daughter played quietly.
Saturday — 7.16 miles
Before germ-fest 2016 arrived at my house, I was planning on running 10 miles with some buddies with a post-run breakfast. Unfortunately I had to bail. There was no way I was going to make it 10 miles. I wasn’t planning on any miles at all, actually. I knew we had a busy Sunday ahead, however, and my family was driving me batty (this is what happens when you’re cooped up all week with the same people with no outlet), so I decided some fresh air would do me some good.
Let me just tell you, I was not ready to be running. I should have waited another day and it was stupid not to. But runners are stubborn folks.
I ran 3 miles to meet one of my friends (she’s also my athlete) for her 8 mile training run. On my route there, I encountered a giant hill I normally run straight up, no stopping. This time I stopped, no joke, three times. I just couldn’t do it. I was still fatigued and due to all the ickiness at home, I literally hadn’t been eating since the prior Friday when all this nonsense started. Within a week I had dropped four pounds. I thought I had fueled up a bit on Friday but it just wasn’t enough. I was literally running on empty. Luckily I had the foresight to know this could potentially happen so I had calories with me, but they just weren’t fast enough. My mantra during my 3-mile solo was “It will be more fun with a friend. It will suck less with a friend.”
I finally got to my friend and was so ready to call it quits and have her drive me home. But she was counting on me and I know she’s been having some knee issues, so we were prepared to play it by ear and if we had to turn early, no sweat.
The next leg of the route was another hill that, again, I never walk up. And again, I had to stop three times! It was embarrassing. I had all these other runners passing me and I was just standing there. I finally pushed myself and made it to the top but my gosh, it was torture.
My friend and I ran four miles together, taking my total up to just over 7 for the day. I wasn’t disappointed with my mileage. I was disappointed with my performance and my silly decision to run on empty. No good, people!
But I was right — it was way more fun with a friend and it did, indeed, suck less when we were running together. #silverlining
This week I’m looking forward to improved run performance as well as my first race of 2016! I’ll be running my very first 10K — EVER! The weather will be spring-like this week and I’ll be running outside every chance I get. I can’t WAIT!!! If you’re local, check out the inaugural Kiss Me I’m Irish 5K/10K/10K Relay at Legacy Village. It’s going to be a great race. I’ll be donning my festive compression socks (because a girl can never own too much compression-fashion, apparently).
I did also finally register for the Cleveland Half Marathon. I was wavering back and forth between the full and the half, which is why I was hesitating to register. But I’m firm with my decision and I’m looking forward to the race. BRING IT!
Don’t forget to enter to my giveaways! BeFit supplements (the whey protein alone makes this giveaway worth entering) and The Good Gummy SmartyPants vitamins are both live now! Enter to win some loot before it’s too late!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Have you had a no good, very bad week recently? What did you do to get out of the funk?
Are you running any theme races this spring?
Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs for Tuesdays on the Run, and HoHo Runs and MissSippi Piddlin’ for the Weekly Wrap!
