Trying To Get Over Myself...

I am trying...really trying...to ride this roller coaster of a marathon training cycle without letting my head get the best of me.  I really am.  But it is hard.  I have had some good runs lately.  I DID actually do ok on my 14 miler last week.  I ran it like I wanted to...2 hours 25 minutes...I was even, hovered right around the 11 minute mark the entire time.  My speed work has been difficult.  I've not consistently hit goal, but I'm getting close enough to know I gave it my best shot, worked hard & am getting stronger for it.  

But it is a constant struggle to keep my head in it & psych myself up to battle this never ending winter weather EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Don't tell me it's spring...don't even go there...because I ran through snow squalls & biting wind today.  And I let my head get the best of me.  I was out for a 16 miler and packed it in at 10 when my last 4 miles were at the 11:30 mark and my legs & mind felt dead.  My mindset is such that all of my runs lately have been within 1 mile of my house.  Seriously.  I can plan out 10-15 miles easy without getting much further than a mile radius.  I know...lame.  

And it really doesn't help that this time last year, my skirts were out and we were blazing up the trails.  Sigh.  

Ok...I do not regret my run.  I'm glad I did get in even a sucky 10.  There are people who can't run at all.  

But COME ON, MOTHER NATURE....enough is enough.

That is all.

The only thing that cheered me up today was finding this new in my Wegman's:

Ok, it is not all.  My neighbour just shared that there is ANOTHER storm coming this weekend.  I hate this. 

I Spoke Too Soon....

The last few posts have been upbeat...and rightfully so. I had been KILLING my torture plan workouts.  Last week, however, was a whole different story.  I have been tired.  REALLY tired.  And I have actually had a couple days when I had to FORCE (what?????) myself to work out.  I didn't even go in the pool last week. Slacker.  It all started with my 12 miler.  It was ok, but I just could not hit my splits...and it was only supposed to be 11:10 pace! I felt heavy & ended up with 11:16 splits.  Not horribly off, but I had been hoping it would feel easier.  It kind of messed with my head.

I have to chant this sometimes

Then I worked a couple days & came back to double torture speedwork. I was supposed to warm-up, then do 3x1600 @ 9 minute pace with only a 1 minute break between intervals.  I am actually happy about this workout (though it sucked big-time doing it) because it was freakin' cold & windy.  The temp was 16F & the road that is a perfect mile happens to be a wind tunnel on the best of days.  9:16/9:20/8:55 for those speed intervals.  I'll take it. But I am SO ready for winter to be over.  I hate it...especially the wind.

I did a couple easy 5 milers in there and some biking on the spin bike at the gym.  The gym I go to has a Top Dog competition every march.  It's mostly lifting but there are a couple running categories, a bike one & a swim.  The run I can no longer hit at 'Gold' level since they dropped the mile time to 7 flat and the 5K time to 23 minutes for my age group.  That's 30 seconds and 2 minutes faster that the goal times last year! So in lieu of embarrassing myself (and risking getting thrown off at high velocity from a treadmill) I decided I'd try the bike one.  It's a power:weight ratio thing.  Involves kilo's, watts and a lot of math....whatevah!....I just killed the bike for the 20 minute time frame, got my average watts reading and let the gym dudes do the math.  They pretty much needed a mop to clean up the sweat after that ride!  Lol!  But I did it....earned my t-shirt....and so far I am in the lead in my age category.  (and tell me how 36-45 is a fair age category for those of us skirting the top edges of it????). That ride killed my quads though....I couldn't run the next day and did a pathetic, low effort recovery ride instead.  Saturday was better.  Thing 1 had me run 8 miles at race pace.  I felt reasonably good with a 10:24 pace.

Yesterday I took Thing 1 to Cornell for the last open meet of the indoor track season.  He FINALLY went under 5 for the 1600 on the indoor track!!!!! 4:59.8   Yay! He's run faster on the outdoor track but the indoor one has been a frustrating struggle.  He was pretty happy.  I was the Mum on the track screaming splits at him...hey, he asked me to do it...he didn't say I couldn't enjoy it! After his race he helped out with the young kids in the local track club so I went for a run on campus.  I honestly don't know how XLMIC ran on this campus all the time! It was SOOOOOOO boring....and good Lord, so hilly.  So painfully hilly.  I'm pretty sure I ran uphill the whole 5 miles regardless of what direction I turned.

I am a little worried about my long run this week.  14 miles.  I hope I have it in me & that the weather is reasonable.

It's been a rollercoaster couple of weeks.  But I guess that's just running.

Oh & today I pulled the trigger & registered for the Dunkirk Tri: Olympic Distance August 25th!!!!  Yikes!

Foto Friday...

This is an integral part of my training plan ;-D

....and the other.... Well, dogs in superhero costumes, how can you not like it????

Have a great running weekend!