My first week of training started off fairly promising. I managed to get out of work at a reasonable time and actually get my 13km tempo in. Thursday I ended up skipping my run group run because I had eaten a whole pile of garbage during a 5 hour meeting. You may think that is lame but like I said, I'm a creature of habit. I generally eat healthfully and I eat at regular intervals throughout the day. When you're sitting in a meeting for 5 hours and all you have is scones, jam, cream cheese, muffins, fruit, veggies and dip...well...let's just say things can get ugly. I need real food. Not grazing food. I finally got to eat my lunch at 3:00 pm, which totally messed me up. I figured I wasn't going to have the energy to do 15x1 minute intervals. So I went home and did a half-assed run from there. Better than nothing I suppose. I got my Saturday & Sunday run in no problem.
Scheduled Weekly mileage: 51 km Actual Mileage: 49.7km - Not bad!
I knew that my second week of training was going to need some tweaking as I was going to be on an overnight shoot from the Monday night to the Tuesday morning. I figured there was going to be no way that I was going to pull of a 16km tempo run after staying up for 30 hours straight. I'm not 24 anymore. So, I shuffled my tempo run to Wednesday morning instead. I then thought it would be smart to go to the gym on Thursday morning and do some leg work. I stepped into the squat rack and did my first set of squats. Hmm....legs don't feel so great. Ah well maybe I just need to warm up a bit more. Second set of squats results in debilitating quad cramps. Motherofgod. Ok so maybe not the greatest idea. I spend the rest of the workout doing upper body, ab work and foam rolling the hell out of my quads. It was too late, the damage was done. I was so sore the next day I shuffled around the studio. I opted not to run that night. I probably should have as that would have helped move out some of the lactic acid. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling like I'd run a downhill marathon. I forced myself to go out and run. It was painfully slow. My legs were so sore it was affecting my gait. It was sloppy and I kept tripping over my feet. At that point I figured it was time to pull the pin. I was supposed to do 8km but I ended up doing 6. More foam rolling and stretching ensued when I got home. Got up Sunday and the soreness was almost all gone. The first half hour of that long run was a bit rough but once I got really warmed up, I ended up having a great run.
Scheduled weekly mileage: 53km Actual Mileage: 43.21km - not great.
I had high hopes for the third week of training. I had a couple of small things on the go at work but nothing that should have impinged my training. Until Tuesday. Of course. I had to quote on a project and they needed the estimate by the end of the day. Of course I finish it mid afternoon but am waiting on one number. I finally get that number at about 4:45. I sent the estimate out with a note telling the Art Buyer that I'm leaving at 5:15. Of course she calls me at 5:00 pm and wants to be taken through the estimate. Fair enough. I've managed to get in to my running gear at least, I should be able to get out at 5:30. That was not to be. Revisions needed to happen. Lots of back and forth. I finally left at 6:00 pm. I had a 17km tempo run scheduled that night. I managed 10km. When I got home from that run I wasn't feeling so good. I had some chills and my throat was a bit sore. I mixed up a glass of vitamin C powder and downed that. I had a hot shower but I couldn't warm up. Not a good sign. I woke up at 1:00 am drenched in sweat. I woke up again at 3:00 am with a pounding headache, stuffed up sinuses and a sore throat and I couldn't get back to sleep. I was officially sick. I skipped my Wednesday morning swim, drugged myself up and went into work. I should have stayed home but my boss needed my paperwork. I got home and went to bed really early. I had a meeting on Thursday that I couldn't reschedule. It was a pre-production meeting for a shoot we were doing the following week. I dragged my butt into work, drugged up on Benalyn daytime. I ended up working late. Friday morning rolled around and I took the day off. I spent it working in my pj's from the comfort of my couch but it was hardly relaxing. I did, however, feel better by the end of the day. Saturday rolled around and we had a huge dumping of snow. I was feeling better but still not 100% so I opted to skip my 8km run and save myself for my 22km on Sunday. That Sunday run was just plain awful. Slushy and gross and I could feel the toll that cold had taken on my body. But I was out and running.
Scheduled Weekly Mileage: 58km Actual Weekly mileage: 32km - YIKES.
I figured this week might get a bit tricky. I had figured I'd be able to get out and run on Tuesday night but work took over and I ended up leaving late. No run for me. I figured that I would do my interval run on Wednesday night and then do my tempo run on Friday morning. We were shooting on Wednesday but we weren't supposed to finish late. We finished late. Arg. I did still manage to get a run in. Not the full 11km I was supposed to do but it was better than nothing. My hamstring was really bothering me as well. More foam rolling and stretching. Learned my lesson from 2 weeks ago and didn't do any leg work the next day when I went to the gym. That made for a short workout but it was better than nothing. Friday morning I tackled my tempo run. It was less than ideal. I felt like crap. My legs were tired and I was just generally not feeling it. I did get to experience an amazing sunrise which made that outing totally worth it. I managed to get a bike ride AND my 9km run in yesterday. My legs were still a bit cranky but I think getting out and moving helped clear out the residual soreness from my massage. My long run was lovely. I went out to the east end and ran with Stephanie through the Leslie Spit. So nice. My legs were still a bit sore, especially around the area of my lower hamstring just behind my knee. Luckily we ran on mostly packed gravel trail so it was much more forgiving than pavement. I was scheduled to 19km but we ended up doing just over 20.
Scheduled Weekly Mileage: 56km Actual Mileage: 53.12km - Better!
Given how these last few weeks have gone, there may have to be some goal re-evaluation for the Chilly Half which is 2 weeks away. I feel like I've totally missed out on some key speed workouts. I'm hoping that things calm down a bit for my next 4 week block of training. March and April are going to be big mileage months. I'm going to need to get those long tempos in as well as my interval training if I want to nail that 3:20 marathon. And, most importantly, I'm going to have to remain injury free.
We'll see how that pans out!
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