Week 13 Recap

Here we are.  It's RACE WEEK!  Before I freak out over that, let's take a look back at last week. 

GMM Half Marathon Week 13 Training Schedule:

• Monday - Rest
• Tuesday - 4 miles speedwork
• Wednesday - Cross Train/Rest
• Thursday - 2 miles easy
• Friday - Cross Train/Rest
• Saturday - 10 miles
• Sunday - 2 miles recovery

How it actually went: 

• Monday - Rest
• Tuesday - 1.8 miles of painful speedwork (nasty shin pain made me stop)
• Wednesday - Rest
• Thursday - 6 miles of painful running but mostly walking (tried to do the 10 miles that day, due to schedule conflicts on Saturday - turns out it was a bad idea!)
• Friday - Rest 
• Saturday - 2 miles easy (felt fine!)
• Sunday - 2 miles not-so-easy (picked it up in the last mile, felt great to move!) 

Total weekly mileage: 11.84

So.  Not exactly a stellar last week of training. Over six miles short, plus Tuesday and Thursdays miles weren't very high value.  Ugh, ugh, ugh.   But! I am happy enough with all of the rest of my training that I'm just going to say Oh Well and move on.  It is what it is and I'm not going to let a few bad runs get me down!  (Plus I already wallowed for a bit - ya'll just didn't get to hear it!) 

Source

And now it's here.  Race Week.  I will run two more short runs this week, then on Friday morning I will get up, say goodbye to my family, and head to the airport.  I am so, so, so excited for this trip . The actual race?  Well, I still haven't thought about that, to be honest.  I have no idea what pace I'm going to run or whether or not I have a time goal.  I haven't decided what fuel I'm bringing, and whether or not I'm going to carry a handheld.  All those things will get decided later this week.  Right now, I'm just going to try to enjoy the "taper madness" that is slowly settling into my brain, and the fact that I am just four days away from meeting some of the best people I have never actually met in person. =) 

Whoo! =)

What are you excited about today? 

Trail-ing Behind

Due to the fact that I have awesomely courageous and talented friends, I'm always hearing about Ultra races and/or trail races and am continually thinking "Man, I wish I could do that!"   A few days ago, a friend mentioned the Stump Jump 50K race in Chattanooga, TN, and I immediately said "I'm in!"   Granted, I would be doing the 11 mile accompanying race, not the actual 50K - and I still need to figure out funds and logistics, but I really want to do the race.  

Of course, after I told my friend I wanted to do it, I immediately realized that I know NOTHING about running on trails, and Tennessee is not exactly flat........ and I don't run on hills.  Hmm.  But! I have 12 months to train for this race, so who says I can't start to run hills?  And explore trails?

So I turned to trusty Google, and found that there are actually quite a few 50M and 50K trail races held in Maryland.  While I'm not up to running in one yet, I can scope out the courses to train on!  Whee!  LOL  

After I get back from Vermont, I will be checking out Jug Bay, an area close to me that I've never even heard of before now that apparently has some cool trails.  They even have a 5K trail race in November......  Surely I can do a 5K trail race, right?  That's baby steps, isn't it? =)  

I'm excited to have something to work towards, even if I'm not 100% sure that I'll be able to do the race in Chattanooga next fall.  Regardless, I have a feeling I'm in for some adventure! 

The Heat Is On

Um, hi.  Mother Nature? Can I talk to you for a second?  Ok, see, it's OCTOBER.  The leaves are starting to turn, the kids and I just put up all the Halloween decorations........ So why was it EIGHTY FREAKING DEGREES when I went on my run today????

Jeepers.  Bad enough I had shin pain, I really could have done without the heat, too, mmmkay?  

Sigh. 

So, in case you haven't gathered, oh, blog reader, today's run pretty much sucked.  I actually walked most of it, lacking both the ability to ignore my shins, and the actual mojo to give a flying fig.  It was just all around dumb.  I've been told that it's "ok" because it's taper-time, and I had a great 12 mile run last weekend, I've done all my training, and therefore my race is going to rock, and blah blah blah.  While all of that may be true, I'd still like to be able to run a few miles without being in pain, but maybe I'm just asking too much. /snark

One good thing about wandering aimlessly down the trail today was that I was able to think.  Not that I don't think when I'm running, but truth be told, thinking is easier when I'm walking.  I'm less likely to trip on something or step on a squirrel.  (Speaking of which, do you have kamikaze squirrels where you are? I swear the ones here dart out in front of you on purpose)  Anyway.  I did some thinking.  Trying to decide what I want to do re: my running after next weekend's race.  

The sad truth is that I have no freaking clue.  But I did come up with a short term plan.  After I take a week (maybe less) off after my race, I'm going to do the following for the remainder of the month, and all of November: 

• Monday - Rest
• Tuesday - Short run with no watch
• Wednesday - actually do some freaking strength training
• Thursday - Hour long trail run
• Friday - see Wednesday
• Saturday - Medium length run with no watch
• Sunday - Short trail run with no watch plus whatever I did on Wednesday and Friday

I'm hoping that this schedule (which I fully plan on making TOTALLY loosey-goosey with no pressure whatsoever) will allow me to do two things.  #1, Get used to running on trails so that I can actually sign up for some trail races, and #2, Get back to actually enjoying running, which  has been hit or miss lately.  Oh, and #3, I guess, would be to actually get in shape and possibly lose some of this weight I've gained back and maybe improve my running since being a weak ass fatty isn't quite cutting it.   

So.  We'll see.  For now, I'm just keeping my eye on "the prize," as it were.  7 days and a wake up till I'm Boston (and then on to VT) bound!