Rain is a good thing

I had quite the exhausting week after coming back from St. Paul. It could that be that a certain someone had too much fun on the trip (me) or that something is up with my body. No matter what the cause is, I had a somewhat up and down week of training last week. Hopefully this week will be different. Lets take a look back at last week.

 August 6, 2013

It sounds weird to say I had an up and down week because I had no complaints with any of my times. I saw some quote this week that said something like, no matter how tired I am, I always find the energy to run (I tried finding it so I could attribute it to that person); that's how I felt on Tuesday. It took me pretty much all day to get motivated for a simple four mile run.

 My body felt lethargic and did not want to leave the house. Eventually, things got going. My body started to feel somewhat alive around 9:47 p.m. The first mile did not go so well; 9:06 split. Suddenly after that, things really got going and I kicked into gear. I managed to get three straight negative splits and finished the last mile with a 6:49 split. Do not ask me where that came from, but it felt great. Things looked promising for the week.

 August 7, 2013

 The mid-week long run can be a difficult one for all runners. It is difficult because it is a slightly longer difference and you have to find a time to do it. My work hours have always been odd, so it can be especially difficult for me. Last week, I worked from 5-9 p.m. and had to find a time to run and get over lethargic-ness.

 I managed to keep my splits between 7:41 and 8:32. My legs were really tired, but I had just had to keep lying to myself and say they were ok. The one thing that made me happy about the run is that I could finish my last half-mile really strong. Having enough energy to have a strong finish is important to me and is a way to implement speed work for me (I really need to get on that). I am not sure why I sweated so much, but that felt good. I even had enough energy to do a short 10-minute full body workout. Even though I did not work too late, I did not know how my legs would react the next day. 

August 8, 2013

Back down to the four mile. The day went by lazily again before I decided to do anything. There were a lot of things that I probably could have done, but just did not have the energy for(noticing a theme for last week). I am not even sure what happened during the day but I did not go running until much later. Eventually, I ran to my friend Jenny's house.

This might have been my best run of the week. The splits were 8:27,8:24, 8:07 and 7:04. These splits are fine for the short runs, but I know that I should find a more consistent pace for the marathon. Again, I will not complain about the splits, because I am happy with them. Despite having good times during the week, the up and down nature of how my body felt, along with the fact that I had to work over 10 hours on Saturday, made me nervous for my long run. 

August 11, 2013

Work got done around 3:45 a.m. I did not get home and into my bed until around 4:15. I think I woke up around 9:30 or so the next day. I went back to sleep for a bit and then just stayed in bed for a very long time. There were thoughts of skipping he 13.1-mile run, but skipping would have made me feel bad. 5:00 p.m. came, I made a half pb & J for fuel and decided it would be now or never.

The sky did not look promising as I walked outside of my place. I said, "please do not rain on me during my long run."Windy City Running Girl and I must have started running around the same time because it started raining around mile three for me. Not sure of what to do at that point, I just kept going.

 It really started to come down and people must have looked at me like a crazy person. I did not want to stop and look at the radar so I just hoped it would stop at some point; it never really stopped. It came, it went, it came, it went. Each time it started raining, it rained a good amount. The best decision I made all day is to wear my Chicago Rock 'N' ROll half-marathon shirt. There is not a time at any point during my long run that I felt like I gained an extra five pounds because of a shirt sticking to me. It surprised me to see how many people were out running once the lakefront path became a part of my run (I wanted to high-five people, but I am not sure they would have liked that).

The first few miles were a little slower because of some stops and I tried to figure out what had been wrong with my phone. I got on to the lakefront path around mile six and started to feel great. It could have been the crazy amount of water I drank at work on Saturday. It could have been that my legs just started to feel great. It just made me happy that things were going well at the halfway point of my run. It is by far the best my body had felt all week. I knew I had been running hard, but it did not feel like a pace that had been too fast for me. Partial thanks go out to the guy who went by me around mile 10.5. He helped push me to finish the run strong.

Upcoming week

Who knows how the week will go, but it should be interesting. I have a trip to Denver on Friday morning and will try to get some runs in out there. Any tips for running out there? That's all for me today.