Highs and Lows...

Highs and lows. Ups and downs. All in one week. Maybe that's the story of marathon training?

Monday, I had a decent morning workout, but Tuesday was miserable. I went to bed Monday night and woke up Tuesday morning with what seemed to be mild food poisoning.  Stomach cramps, dizziness, the works. I dragged myself to work, focused on drinking a ton of water, and mentally beat myself up for having not run in the morning. (I am 100% my own worst critic, and extremely hard on myself).  But! When I came home, I felt decent enough to try for the plan-mandated 5 miler. And rocked it!  Felt good, went fast.

Wednesday morning was another good crosstraining day.  My workouts were...  Monday - 3 rounds of: 10 front squats at 40lbs, 5 (each leg) lunges at 40lbs, 10 wipers, 30 seconds (each side) side planks. Wednesday - 4 rounds of: 10 (each leg) single-leg deadlifts at 40 lbs., 10 tricep dips, 5 (each leg) modified bridge (one leg propped up, one held perpendicular to body), 5 regular bridges.

Thursday it was HARD to wake up. I've been trying to get up at 5 am every day so I have time to eat/coffee/restroom, run, and take care of things around the house. I was exhausted. Exhausted. But I got my run in, and somehow stayed awake for work.

Friday, I slept in. Woot.  And then the trouble started...

Saturday, I was geared up and ready for my 12 mile run. I was perhaps a touch overdressed, but you can unzip. I probably should've done my TrailRocs instead of my RoadX-Tremes, but again, even that could be overcome. The problem? I'm a salty sweater, the effort of running in the snow + being overdressed had me sweating away...  and my brand-new CameBak vest? (review coming later today)  Well, the tube froze. Froze solid. Two miles into the run. No hope of getting anything to drink. At this point, I'd done 3.6 miles, about 1 mile into the wind, and mentally, I just lost. I called the husband to pick me up and vowed pick up the insulated CamelBak tube and to try again Sunday.

Sunday... Sunday was windy. 18mph sustained with 30 mph wind gusts. Ugh! Additionally, people in Michigan seem to think that they have no responsibility to shovel their sidewalks. Not terrible when it's first snowing, awful after it's been stomped down and then frozen into little, wild ridges.  Shovel your sidewalks people!!! And if you live on a corner, sorry, you get to shovel both sidewalks. Ugh.

So I started strong, didn't even mind the first mile into the wind. I made it through several windblown, snowy sections of sidewalk (might as well be running in sand), and then at about 4.15 miles in, I turned into the wind. The crazy, gusty wind. Wind that leaves you making a running motion, but standing still. I started walking 1 minute for every 15 I ran, but there was just no way to properly recoup the effort of running into 30mph winds through windblown snowdrifts.  I made it 9 miles, but at that point, my toes were VERY painfully losing feeling. Not sure if they were numb, or smushed by the fact that I had on light cushion socks instead of ultrathin, but I may as well have had little blocks of fire attached to my feet. I was close to home and I gave in.

While I'm discouraged that I didn't get an actual 12 miler in, I'm refusing to look at it as a failure. My weekend total was 12.65. I ran a 5k and then got in 9 miles the next day! I woke up with a migraine today, but still managed to recover and run 9 miles. Oh yeah, and the weather conditions were rotten, energy-sucking ickiness. Besides, I am training for a marathon, not a sprint. Not every day, weekend, or week will be perfect. Not every run will go well, and sometimes there is a string of ick. It's a big race, and I need to look at the big picture. Overall, I got my miles. In challenging conditions. Take this one as a draw, a tie, and move forward.

Workout of the Day: 9 mile run

Song of the Day: "The Man" - Aloe Blacc   "Somewhere I heard that life is a test; I been through the worst but still I give my best".