Woah woah WOAH- blog title is referring to my legs! My aching, stiff legs.
3 weeks of training behind me, 5 weeks in front of me.
12 training runs and 53 miles complete. And up until Friday I had run each training run as prescribed. This weekend had called for a 10 mile long run... and to be honest, I was not looking forward to it. I decided to get it out of the way on Friday afternoon because I knew I had a busy day ahead of me on Saturday. In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best idea. I was starting to have a little soreness after my 5 mile tempo run on Wednesday, then did my 2 mile "easy" run at a faster pace than the training plan called for... trying for 10 miles on Friday afternoon was too much.
Mentally I checked out of the run around mile 2 and couldn't get my head back in it. Shin and ankle pains started popping up somewhere around 5 miles, and I called it quits at 8.
It just ended up being one of those days where running was not fun. Oh, and I failed to mention that this attempted 10 mile was taking place on the treadmill, which didn't help my motivation. Time to move training outside, especially now that the weather is starting to feel a little more fall-like.
Today I feel a little hobbled. I'm having some high ankle pain in my right ankle and really need to make sure I give it the care and rest that it needs. I had plenty of severe pain during training for the last half marathon and want to avoid that this time (obviously).
If I am going to do this running thing for years to come, I have to put my ego aside (the voice in my head that tells me to ignore my pain just because I don't want to look like I'm slacking) and listen to my body. This will be tough. I have a LOOOONNNGG history of doing what my brain tells me to do, even if it means abusing my body. Sometimes I pretend like I'm a superhuman. Alright fine... here comes the confession: I'm just a regular old human being. Drat. I have learned that I DO need things like: sleep, water, vitamins, relaxation. Double drat.
I was able to get out of the house for some child-free, husband-free time on Friday night and spend some time at Barnes & Noble. Ahhh.... it was lovely! My favorite thing to do when I have alone time is hang out in the cafe, drinking coffee, eating some sort of pastry, and browsing through stacks of books and magazines! I happened to come across a copy of a book I had heard about a number of times but kept forgetting to look in to it. It's called "Chi Running" I'm really looking forward to learning about this. I'm only a few pages in, but it is supposed to help with improving running form in order to run more balanced, decrease injury, and hopefully run faster. I hope to actually finish this book (history also shows that I start a LOT of books, but don't tend to finish them. Once I finish I'll post some sort of review on it and let you all know if it is helpful!
Week 4 of training begins tomorrow.... 20 miles this week, which will be more than I've ever done in a week. hoping my tired legs will survive, but also hoping to remember to back off if I don't feel like my body can handle it!
Hope everybody has a great start to the week tomorrow!
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