I'm just over halfway through my training cycle for Boston and looking back at the last two months, I am freaking out just a little bit. I only run 3 days a week and I've missed about 20% of my weekly key workouts. I've done all my long runs except one so that is a positive but I gotta say, I'm not feeling 100% confident about my ability to go sub 3:20 at Boston. Sure, a lot can happen in 7 weeks and my racing season is just starting so who knows. But, if I don't pick it up and start becoming more consistent, then race day in Beantown is not going to be pretty. Of course, just as my knees have gotten better, work has picked up as well. When work is busy, it's
busy. Like 12-14 hour days busy. To top it all off, I may have to travel for work next week. I don't normally mind doing that, especially when it's to warmer climes (we're supposed to go to Miami, woohoo) but, traveling for work usually means no free time. The project I'm going to be potentially working on will involve 4 days in Miami and then coming back to Toronto to shoot for another 3 days. Those 3 days will probably be over the course of a weekend. The same weekend I have 20 miler number three scheduled.
That should make life interesting to say the least.
Of course, me being the worrier/planner/obsesser that I am, I'm already trying to figure out when I can squeeze everything in because I really don't want to lose another week of workouts.
<BREATHE>
Perhaps I'm just worrying because I had a crappy run yesterday. I always try not to let bad runs get the better of me, but yesterday was totally miserable. I felt like I hadn't fueled enough before and my legs just hurt from the get go. I figured after taking 2 days off that I'd feel great. I did have a massage on Wednesday and A.R.T work done on Tuesday so perhaps my legs haven't quite recovered from that yet. Who knows. All I know is that yesterday sucked. There was ONE positive from yesterday's run and that was the fact that my knees didn't hurt at all. Usually they hurt when I start running and then they're fine. Yesterday I started running with no pain. Zero. And I managed to hammer the downhills with no pain either. Another plus I guess. My quads have paid the price for that today but I've got another A.R.T session on Wednesday to help work that out. The other positive was that I managed to go 1 second faster than my goal pace per km. I was supposed to average 5:03/kms and I managed 5:02's for just over 32km. Ok so that's 3 positives. Guess I found the silver lining in yesterday's run after all.
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| Ugly, but I got it done. |
I have a monster tempo run scheduled on Tuesday (16km+warm up & cool down) but given that I am racing a half on Sunday, I will probably dial that back to 12km, which I will more than likely do on the treadmill since we're supposed to get a huge dumping of snow. I suspect there will have to be some doubles this week. Fun times. Guess I better get into the kitchen and prep some meals because I think I'm going to be bringing the hungries all week long.
How do you deal with a bad run?
5 comments:
Wow you are a busy woman! What do you do if you don't mind me asking? Miami is definitely a total flip from snow!
I'm a producer at a commercial photography studio. Sometimes I sit around a twiddle my thumbs and other times, I'm so busy I'm lucky if I get to do anything outside of work. It's never consistent work, it's either nuts or it's dead. But at least it's interesting and I get to go to places like Miami! :D
Oh, Phaedra, I'm so sorry it's been crappy for you lately. I know that you have it in you to do a sub 3:20 (holy insanity!) at Boston if you can get the training in. Maybe things will calm down at work to where you can get your runs in like you need to. You may already know about this website (http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/) but I use to to map routes in unfamiliar places. Regardless of how the next 6 weeks go, one this is for sure: You will ROCK Boston! And you will have a huge fan cheering for you in Mississippi. You my friend, are truly an inspiration!
I know you've been nervous and stressed bc of the lack of runs and such, but you are a BEAST at running and will be fine!!! Focus on what you can do which is sneak in runs (even if they are shorter then they are supposed to be). You totally got this!! Plus I wish I could go to Miami right now -- beautiful running weather :)
You know what I've decided? Boston is coming in 7 weeks whether I'm ready or not. I was going great guns, then my calf started giving me some hassles. Took a week off and it's ok now, but not perfect so I've had to dial back on the speedwork. Long runs are shorter right now, too. Thing is, shit happens. Unless you're a professional athlete with lots of time to run and recover, then work, time, kids, etc. will get in the way. So you do what you can and hope it's enough. That 20 might not happen, but maybe you can squeak in 2 x 10 milers. And bad runs tend to be the best runs because we learn so much from them. Good luck!
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