Happy Sunday! I love Sunday's because it's our Long, slow, distance run which means I am out running with a great group of other adult females and NO children or spouses! It's my ME time for the week when I don't have to worry about anything and get to enjoy spending time with my friend's - with no interruptions!
This morning the training schedule said I should be doing 9 miles at around a 11:27 pace. What we ended up doing was 10.07 miles at a 10:52 pace. So we went a little longer and a little too fast, but, my heart rate was still within the appropriate range.
One thing I was concerned about as I was heading to the run this morning was my leg. It didn't really "hurt" when I got up but it was a little achy. I change the top bandage to make sure that it was staying closed and had stopped bleeding. It looked pretty good, so I put a new bandage over the top of it and headed out. During the run, I felt it occasionally but it didn't impede my stride or my ability to finish the run.
After the run, we went and had coffee as we always do. Today though, we sat for a long time and visited. It was so great to relax and enjoy the time together.
When I got home, I double checked on my leg again. Here's what it looked like....
After a quick bite to eat, fresh bandages on the cut and a shower, I left for Occidental to have lunch at Howard's Station Cafe followed by the Cedar Enzyme Bath at Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary for my best friend, Amy's, birthday. It was incredible relaxing. The perfect end to a great day!
Monday 9/19/11
This morning I started working on seeing if I needed a tetanus shot. Trying to make phone calls at 8:00 am when the doctor's office opens, with four kids in the car so they have to be quiet so you can hear the sounds coming from your wireless blue tooth speaker, is not what I would call fun. When I finally got through to the office, they said they would have to call me back after tracking down my paper chart (they've apparently gone digital since I was last in... which was years ago.) So I continued on with my morning and waited for their call. It never came, so I had to follow up. In the end, I needed to go get a tetanus shot because they could not find a record of my last booster.
Tetanus shots are not any fun. They hurt! My arm hurt worse from the shot than my leg did from the cut. Oh well.... better to be safe than sorry.
Tuesday 9/20/11
Today was a super busy day. Had an extra meeting at my kids' school during the time I would usually run, so I had to get up and do my run at 5:30am. My other option would have been to run in the afternoon or evening, but there were two reasons that was not an appealing option today. One - it was super hot outside today! Running in the heat is not something I enjoy. Two - there's always more of a chance that something will come up and interfere with my plans if I try to run in the afternoon/evening. I've learned that if I get my runs done in the mornings then they will always get done.
Today's run was a slow, recovery run. Last week, going slow was hard. Today, slow wasn't so bad, however, maybe that's because I felt like I was still half asleep! It was so peaceful and quiet out. I almost ran right into a spider and it's web that was across the entire sidewalk at chest height. I spotted it in my headlamp at the last second and walked slowly into the street to go around it. All in all, it was a good run. The training schedule said I had to do 2 - 4 miles at around an 11:30 pace and I did 4 miles at an 11:29 pace.
Since school started, I haven't been running in the wee hours of the morning because I have to be getting the kids ready for school, so it was kind of hard to get up and out the door for my 5:30am run today. I also didn't realize how dark it was at that hour, so at the last minute I woke up our chocolate lab, Trixie, and took her with me. Taking Trixie is always interesting. It takes her about 1 - 1.5 miles to calm down and settle into controlled pace. She was on guard when we went by people; she was ready to chase the cat that crossed our path. All of this made it interesting for my sore arm, which was still aching from the Tetanus shot. Here's a picture of Trixie at the end of our run.... under a street light and in the light of my headlamp (as you can see it was still really dark.... and she's a chocolate lab, so she blends in!)
Wednesday 9/21/11
Waking up this morning, after yesterday's super long day, was extremely hard. I felt like my feet were cased in cement.... I just couldn't get moving. This tends to be an issue when you have to get four kids to school and then run 7 miles. I managed to get the kids to school, and myself dressed to go for the run immediately after drop off but I did not plan my route out ahead of time. Normally this would bother me, today, I was glad for it because I felt sluggish tired. Having to keep my mind busy figuring out which direction to go, when to turn around so I made it back to the school at the end of 7 miles, kept my mind from thinking about how tired I felt. I just started running and made my route up as I went. I eventually ran out of sidewalk along Hwy 116 south, so I turned around and headed back. I decided then to get onto the West County Trail starting at Analy High School because I knew where it went and how far I would be from the school. It was refreshing having to figure it out as I went.
By the end, I had my 7 miles at an average pace of 10:44. My training schedule today was for distance only. No pace requirements that I was suppose to try and keep. I did have some guidelines for my heart rate, though, and I was at the low end of the range I should have been in. That's really good, but at the same time, it felt so much harder than that! Oh well.... some days are going to be like that! Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Thursday 9/22/11
Today is suppose to be the hardest workout/run of my week, according to my training schedule. My schedule for today said 4 - 5 miles, tempo run; but I was running with two others so we did something different. We ran a route we call Montecito Madness. It's named this because we run up Chanate to Montecito and then down Montecito to Pacific and back to Cathy's house. It's SUPER hilly! So no tempo run today, we just pushed hard on the hills. I was not feeling it today! I had to walk up some of the hills because I just didn't have the energy to run up them, which was evident by how my heart rate would climb higher when I tried to push through and keep running. By the time we were done, all I wanted to do was go to bed, but alas, I had a client to see and children to pick up from school.
Our run ended up being 5.2 miles long and the average pace was 10:24. My heart rate, despite climbing too high on the hills, was overall, below my target range for the day. I was shocked to see this because the run felt so incredibly hard.
I had been hoping today would feel better than yesterday, but it didn't. I tried not to feel disappointed by it, and tried to focus on the positive aspects - like as still did it, I finished the run, etc... - but it was hard. I really just wanted a nap, and by golly, I got one! After I picked the kids up from school, we all curled up in my bed and took a nice, long two hour nap. Pure bliss!!!
Friday 9/23/11
Today was cross training/strength training day. I went to Cardio Kickboxing and it was a tough class! Colleen kicked our butts today! It felt great. My sciatica was bothering me a little and so was the cut on my leg so I modified a few things when I needed to. In the afternoon at work, I did a small amount of strength training when I needed to demonstrate some exercises.
Saturday 9/24/11
Woke up really sore across my upper back and shoulders this morning from Kick Boxing yesterday. It was that good sore, that lets you know you really worked hard. I love that feeling! Taught my Outdoor Family Fitness class this morning. The theme for the day was "ALL ABS" and it was a great class! Everyone worked really hard.
Had a busy day after class. Had to pick up my son's friend, JP, so they could have a playdate. Then, had to drop my daughter off at a birthday party. When it was time to pick her up, I loaded the boys into the car and went and got her. After the party dispersed, we took JP home, but of course, the kids wanted to play, so we were there for a bit. Once we finally got home it was 4pm and I still needed to go to Whole Foods. Once the kids were settled at home with my husband, James, I went to Whole Foods, came home and made dinner. After dinner, James got the kids in the shower while I cleaned the kitchen. By 7:30pm the kids were tucked into bed and I got to relax with James for about an hour before I went to bed because tomorrow, Sunday, we're running at 6:30am.
And that's the end of Week 2 Marathon Training. It was busy and hard, but I made it!
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