Marathon Training Week 6

Mileage: 26.74 Runs: 4 Rides home: 1

This week was a lot of up and downs. LOTS. Here’s how it went down…

MONDAY: Job interview for a new school. Close to home, lots of music equipment.

TUESDAY: Job offer! Happy dance. 6 miles with Negative Splits. Kick ass.

WEDNESDAY: While doing laundry, somehow tweak my back — knees buckle — fall to the floor. Spend five minutes imagining myself as the new face of Life Alert: “Help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Ice. Lubricate with good friends and wine.

THURSDAY: Gingerly head out for easy 6. Nail 5 of them with surprising speed. Smile A LOT.

FRIDAY: Rest day. Stretch. Start getting paperwork for new job. Get all supplies ready for long run. Wonder how all of the flashlights have ended up in the kids’ rooms. Pray for AA batteries.

SATURDAY: For the first time since training – and pre-training – began I stood in my bathroom looking back at my warm bed and honestly thought about getting back in it. I didn’t – but boy did I want to. Instead I ate some breakfast, drank some Gatorade, laced up and headed out in the dark to tackle 15 miles. The first 5 were passable. Six was ok. Seven I was dying of thirst, out of water, and a mile from a gas station. The wheels fell off at mile 8, I stopped, sucked down 32 oz. of water, refilled the carry bottles, GU’d and tried again. I texted my husband at mile 9 that I would be late because I was mainly walking. I called at mile 10 and asked him to pick me up. I only made it 11. 32 miles.

Thankfully, Dear Hubby new better than to try to converse on the ride home. I was broken. Instead of my weekly float in the pool, I headed straight for the shower, and then wrapped myself in comforter and a blanket of self-pity. I stayed there for most of the afternoon and when I woke I felt as if someone had taken a baseball bat to my shins. This training has been crazy – just when I think I’ve got something figured out – motivation, pace, nutrition, hydration – it all goes south and leaves me standing around wondering what the hell just happened? Last week I felt awesome, and this week I’m crippled in a pile of dirty laundry. 

This week – to quote Taylor Swift – I’m just going to Shake it Off, and look at one run at a time. I see a tempo run, hills, and 16 miler in my future. Not to mention starting a new job, and the kids starting new schools of their own. That is all so much larger than I can comprehend. I will just think about one mile at a time, before I end up feeling six feet under.

Until next week…