The Wall

I hit the proverbial training wall this past week.  I had never thought about it happening; not that I thought I was invincible, but I just never entertained the notion because I never, well, thought about it.  It happened after three consecutive weeks of impressing myself, logging more than 120 miles.  Two weeks ago I felt that I was slow to recover from a 15-miler.  After my first ever 18-miler last Sunday, I guess it was bound to happen.  Here's the breakdown...yeesh.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 7.45 miles @ 8:45
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: "Rest"
Friday: 6.78 @ 8:14
Saturday: 6.01 @ 8:41
Sunday: 13.48 @ 8:44
Total: 33.72

Kinda a buzzkill after I thought I was becoming a badass.  Three days of rest?  What a weeny-squeezer.  Thursday's rest is in quotes because I hardly rested that day.  We had conferences after school until 7:30PM and I'm pretty sure I saw a record number of parents.  Plus, I decided the 12+ hour day at work was the right one on which to wear 3.5" pumps.  At least I got to sit on my ass for most of conferences.  Side note: Before running, I had no problem rocking 3.5" pumps to school on a daily basis.  I don't know if it's the swelling or the toe abuse, but I feel I've lost my skill.

Anywho, Friday and Saturday were bust runs for me.  On Friday my goal was 7 miles before leaving for school.  When I left the house, I wasn't feeling 7 miles, so I thought I'd try just 3 for speed.  I conked out after just under a mile at 6:45 pace, scaled it back to 8:20ish, and switched my goal back to 7.  I ran short on time, though, and finished up just under 7.

We went to a wine tasting at the Glass Pavilion on Friday night, which we hadn't done for for a long, long time. It was a lot of fun and now Joe wants to grow a mustache.  Afterwards we went to Jed's where I watched the end of the Ohio win over Beefalo and enjoyed a short Amber Bock.  Didn't expect the hangover I felt Saturday morning when I got up around 5:45, so I postponed the run and went back to bed and napped until about 11.  Is that really napping or just more sleeping?  I ran with Joe and Alex around 2:00PM instead and felt like doo-doo.  Legs were heavy, wind was blowing at our faces somehow from all but one direction, and I was totally down on myself for only having run 13 miles this week at that point.  I whined and moaned my way through 6 miles.  Bless the hearts of Joe and Alex for putting up with me.

Even after that crappy, crappy Saturday afternoon run, I felt AWESOME this morning.  The long run plan for this week was 13 miles, but around mile 11 I thought about going for 15 instead.  Then some crazy lady on almost hit me and I just wanted to get home.  Apparently, she didn't like it that I stuck out my arm, motioning for her to move over with no other cars coming from the opposite direction.  After passing me, she laid on her horn.  Still running, I turned around and threw up both of my arms to suggest, "What's up your hole?!" to see that she had stopped her car in the road.  I continued on my way, then heard her door slam shut and her shrieking, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!  YOU GET BACK HERE!  NAG NAG NAG!"  I have to pat myself on the back--I didn't turn back again to entertain her.  I figured had I stopped and a confrontation ensued, I would have ended up pepper spraying her.  I didn't want to do that, and this woman was clearly nuts, so I took the higher road.  Tammy and Susan have told me a story of a crazy lady in her car at the train tracks nearby who went batshit on them once (for a different reason).  I wonder if this was the same nut.

Marathon training--10.5 weeks out

After a lot of strong encouragement, I am going to try to follow a structured marathon training plan.  I think last week was "Krista, you're worrying us"-week.  I came down with what I thought was a sinus infection on Sunday (1/29).  I had planned to do 8 miles with Becky Monday at 6:00PM, but just before 5:00PM I was struck with the worst pain I've experienced in my life.  It got exciting here, as I had Joe call 9-1-1 after about 30 minutes of hell.  EMTs came.  All of my vitals were really normal (plus, they mentioned that I "definitely" am a runner based off of my heart rate, which made me feel awesome mentally).  I opted to not go to the hospital, the pain subsided temporarily after about an hour, and then it came back twice later that evening.  Haven't felt it since then, but I'm pretty sure it was a kidney stone.

After all of that pain, Tuesday had me feeling like I had the crap kicked out of me, so took a second rest day.  On Wednesday evening I was feeling good and wanted to make up for what I missed, so after work I did almost 11.5 miles.  Thursday was my first real attempt at speed work.  I did the usual Friday and Saturday morning runs, with Saturday cut shorter than my planned 16 miles.  I had been in desperate need of new shoes and on Friday I started feeling some ankle and shin pain in my left leg, so I stopped at 8 miles on Saturday and went over to Dave's for a new pair (same that I was wearing before).  Sunday was shot thanks to wine, Patron, and Mexican food the night before.  Bad idea jeans.  Here are the numbers for 1/30 through 2/5:

Monday: Nada
Tuesday: Zilch
Wednesday: 11.45 miles @ 8:22
Thursday: 3 @ 7:40
Friday: 4.33 @ 9:18
Saturday: 8 @ 9:07
Sunday: Nada
Total: 26.78

I felt kind of defeated with 3 "rest" days in a week, but there was no way I would have made it out Monday and Tuesday I needed to take care of myself.  On Sunday, I paid for it and was actually hungover until Monday evening.

This week has been better.

Monday: 7.05 @ 8:43
Tuesday: 6.02 @ 8:47
Wednesday: 5.71 @ 9:01...not so bueno
Tonight: 3.03 @ 7:34
Projected for
Tomorrow: 5-6
Saturday: 15
Sunday: 8
Goal total: 40ish+

I'm heading out now to do three miles, hoping to do something like the 23:00 three-miler I did last Thursday evening.  I should hit over 40 miles in a week for the first time.  Joe is kicking butt at training for the half.  AND he's way better at pull-ups than I will ever be.

January: 136+ miles

In the first four weeks of 2012 I have run over 136 miles.  I should be above 140, but a nasty cold decided to stop by for a visit.  My plan was to run 14 miles yesterday, but I only did 9.8.  This morning I did a strong 7+ in Rossford with Joe, Alex, Tammy, Susan, and Kerri.  Despite all of the ooze coming out of my nose and throat, I could have gone longer.   Not that it's a goal through this running, but I have lost two pounds since the beginning of the month.  It could just be dehydration from the illness, so maybe it's only been one pound if not less.

I am definitely due for some new kicks soon.  My current pair has seen about 300 miles.  They aren't wearing too bad at all and my feel still feel good.  I have noticed a few blisters lately, which I hadn't had for a long while.  Also, I'm really getting used to having 10 toenails, so I need to be proactive to keep them.

I'm thinking about changing my 14 miles for this Saturday to 16.  I can do it, as long as I can twist some arms to continue with me after mile 8.  If I'm going to run that long, I need to experiment with refueling during a run.  I like to have as little on my person as possible while running (big reason I switched from Endomondo on my phone to a Garmin in order to track my runs), but it might be time to start carrying a small water bottle.  Tammy offered up her fuel-belt-thingy.

As far as actual energy, I tried Gu once and did not like it.  If it's normal for gels to be chalky, then I think I need to just stay away from them.  I had Clif Shot Bloks and they weren't so bad insofar as texture and flavor, but I only tried them before a couple of 8-mile runs, so I really couldn't tell if they worked for me since I didn't pop them during the runs.  Sport beans seem not so bad--I'm pretty sure they are really just plain old Jelly Belly jelly beans, and I do like jelly beans.  Tammy suggested that I carry a bottle of water mixed with honey, since honey is straight up sugar.  It sounded gross when she suggested it, but that was the first day that I was feeling really sick, so nothing sounded good to me.  Any suggestions for refueling during longer runs?  What does and does not work for you?