Stephanie's Training - Week 14

Training Day #43 - August 23, 2010

I feel like I’m becoming a broken record……

Another day, another run.

I’m not as motivated this Monday morning as some of my other Mondays. It follows a busy weekend and not a lot of rest.

Today was one of the last “hot” days for awhile, so Megan and I decided to try and beat the heat. We met fairly early, strapped on our music players and set off. We visited for quite a while…..I mean we hadn’t seen each other in a week. :)

We set off on a quick-paced walk through the bustling town of Sturgeon. Weather wasn’t too bad, a little sweat a brewin’……..

From what I gathered from Megan we walked about half our distance before we decided to kick it into jogging mode. Off we went……

I managed to muster enough to jog the rest of the distance back to the “start” line. Funny thing, though, I decided to take a bit of “advice” from my sister. She had read or heard that runners should drink ‘heavily’ (water, that is!) about a half hour before their run. It helps build their “endurance” and then you only need small sips throughout……

So a half hour before I went to town, I drank a hefty sized glass of water with my breakfast…something I usually don’t do. I also took a last minute restroom break on my way out the door…..you know, just to make sure.

Not even 15 minutes into our walk…….I have to PEE!! Great. How is one to walk, and then jog, with a full bladder! Well, there wasn’t exactly a great “restroom break” stop along the route, so I just held it…..and held it…..and held it.

By the time we reached the rec center, where we had begun, I bee-lined it to my van to get my key card and raced into the building to the restroom! Aahhhh!

Mental note: Drink as little as possible before the race. Really don’t need a potty break at The Heidelberg in the middle of my race!

Training Day #44 - August 25, 2010

What a beautiful morning! The temperature has dropped and what a morning to walk….I mean jog.

Met Megan again this morning, fairly early. This time, though, my joints….ALL of them from the hip down were ACHING!!! Not just a little bit…..a WHOLE LOT! Aging is not a great thing.

I thought that perhaps as we warmed up that the pain, as usual, would subside.

NOPE!

Not too long into our walk, Megan asked me if I felt like jogging……Ummmm, can I be honest and say “no way!” Well, I was honest. I didn’t feel like jogging. She didn’t either….sore knee and lots of site-seeing for her the next few days.

We decided we’d quicken our walk and go a little extra distance to get in a good work out this morning. It was a good work out….got my heart rate up. But, Oh….my…goodness. Where is the Advil! I think I need to invest in some Icy Hot!

So far, this is not a week I’d like to have in my blog at this stage of the game! But I guess when our bodies know they need a break, they sure have a way of telling us to “Slow down!”

Friday is a new day. We’ll see what happens.

Training Day #45 - August 27, 2010

I truly had resigned myself last night that there was just NO time today to squeeze in a workout. I mean, I’m planning a large get-together for my husband’s 40th birthday……I have yard to mow, errands to run, house to clean, cakes to bake, etc….etc….etc….

So when, oh when, will I find time to run…….

Inner voice. That inner voice…..it’s called “Guilt” today.

I was up at 7, out the door to Centralia by 8, and headed back to Sturgeon to pick up the steaks for tomorrow by 9. I knew I couldn’t pick up my steaks until around 9:30 so “Guilt” pipes up and lets me know…..”You’ve got time to run.” Huuhhhhh.
Yes, yes I do.

So off to the rec center I go. I knew then that I wouldn’t be able to run my full 3.1 and opted to run for 30 minutes and get whatever distance I could squuueeezzze into that 30 minutes.

At first I thought I’d just walk the whole time…..knees and ankles were still pretty achy. But after 6 minutes, I pushed the speed up to 4.8 and set into a jog. I was able to jog to the last 10 minutes, took a 3 minute walk break and then finished the rest out in a jog.

My final distance was 2.15.

Got my workout in……even amidst all the “stuff” to do!! :)