I know all my adoring fans have missed me (my fan list, I suspect, accumulating to a whopping 0) but I have come back again. With some updates.
Good heavens. It has been a long time since I've posted. You know it's bad when Stacey's posted twice since my last = P It has been 2 weeks and one day since I last updated. This is unacceptable. But pretty much unavoidable.
Two weeks ago, I was helping with parking for a concert thing by my church. I ran Tuesday and Wednesday, and if I remember correctly, they went fine. Thursday I was supposed to, but I was doing parking and packing for camp and driving church vans to camp... I'm pretty sure I was supposed to do 4 and I tracked how much I was walking around to complete my various tasks, and I did something like, 3.5 just walking around. Friday was busy too, so I didn't exactly do cross training. And that Saturday, my 9 miler, was a failure. Biggest failure yet really.
That Saturday, I was at Covenant Hills, which is a camp I grew up at and have worked at the previous 3 summers. This past week was family camp, which is the week when families from all over the state come and bring their trailers and hang out and have church services and what not. Covenant Hills provides a terrain that differs quite distinctly from my own. And my first test on it was, of course, my niner. No easing into it. Covenant Hills is quite hilly, hence the name, and quite a bit of it is dirt roads and sand. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, I totally forgot to carb load, didn't really drink enough either... the run kind of crept up on my honestly... And I did horribly. I ended up doing 6 miles and walked the vast majority of it. I quickly learned that the dirt roads were more forgiving with their lesser amount of impact on my knees and hips, but quite unforgiving of my endurance, taking more force from each step and not giving as much of it back to me like the paved paths at home do. I also quickly learned that when I am not mentally into a run, it's pretty pointless. Most long run days, I psyche myself and get motivated and think about what it will be like to finish. I did not mentally prepare that day, and I had nothing to keep me going.
After that, I skipped my three easy miles on Sunday, gladly rested on Monday, skipped my 4(?) on Tuesday, and then Stacey joined me on Wednesday and I got back on track. We did our threes on Wednesday and Thursday and virtually didn't stop and had respectable times. Friday I cross trained with some swimming and some biking (both very fun) and Saturday, I completed my 10. Actually, my 10 was one of my favorite runs so far. I did much better on the carb loading this week, and also hydration. I peed clear like, 3 times before I left :) haha. My 10 was great because it held a new sort of accomplishment, and was also a route with a wide variety. It started out on paved flat country roads, then switched to hilly dirt country roads. Then I ran a couple miles on dirt trails, which was really challenging with lots of hills and softer dirt, but super fun. Probably my favorite part of the route. And finished up meandering around the campgrounds, mostly consisting of hilly dirt roads, a few sections paved. I figure this is closest to what the actual half-marathon route will be like, and I survived with a time of 2:03:36. That's a little over an average of 12 minute miles, which isn't my best, but since I misbehaved and wanted to make sure I survived, I took it a little easier on myself. I really didn't walk at all except for one brief strip where I was going down hill on a trail in the dark. That was more for safety. But yes. Nonetheless, I finished a double digit mileage, got back up after failing, and felt good about it. And Josh, my boyfriend, gets major kudos for running most of it with me. I met me about halfway through the hilly dirt country road stretch, and finished it out with me. I'm not sure how he does it. I have to train. He just seems to be a natural.
Sunday came, and I did my easy three by walking the whole time and catching up with an old friend on the phone. And then "catastrophe" struck.
It started Sunday night, and by Monday morning, whatever it is, hit. I can't tell if it's allergies, or a cold, or allergies that turned into a cold... whatever it is, it has me down and out and unable to complete my runs the last 2 days. Day one consisted of a tickley throat and a runny nose and a touch of fever. Day two consisted of a fountain-like nose, complete with periods of dripping, congestion, frenzied sneezing, and me feeling like a balloon head. Also, lots of sleeping. This morning, day three, has consisted of more congestion and coughing, and the occasional sneeze, and fever now and then. I am desperately hoping to get off my tush and get some running in tomorrow, but it's quite the dilemma. Because if it is allergies, then whatever it is that my body does NOT want inside it, is out there, and running means going out there, likely getting more rejected substance back in my body. But if I don't run, I don't want to the think of the progress I'll lose : ( No one ever said on the schedule what to do if you got sick! Today, going upstairs and playing my guitar wore me out. So I'm hoping for a bit of a miracle here. Or a surgical mask. One of the two.
That's my update. Not too successful. But what can you do? At least I was blessed with a good 10 miler.
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