Laziness, be gone!

I finally convinced myself to go out for a run! It only took me two more hours to get out the door, but I did it! I fit in a quick, relatively easy 4-miler and made it back home in enough time to shower, relax a bit, make dinner, and drive to tutoring on time (for a change!). GO ME.

A Reality Check

so it's been a while since I updated. to be perfectly honest, I've been completely exhausted. training is going pretty well. at least I thought it was going well until today... I've ran or cross-trained every single day for the past 9 days. I was very excited to be getting back into a routine.

the problem occurred today when I decided to look at a legitimate marathon training schedule. I have 6 weeks left. At this point, I'm supposed to be up to 30-40 miles per week. I haven't run more than 20 miles per week in the past month...

I AM SCARED that I'll never get up to the mileage I need & still have time to taper before the marathon. I'm not sure what to do. Should I jump up to 40 miles next week and pick up the training plan from that point? or should I gradually increase my mileage and do whatever I can, but peak at 30 miles per week? when should I start to taper? I want to make sure my muscles are fully recovered before the marathon... I've only done 2 "long" runs up to this point... a 12-miler and a 15-miler. I still have to fit in at the very least ONE very long run of 18 or 20 miles (ideally, I should have done anywhere from 2-5 of these over the past 4 months), and I have to do this before 2 weeks prior to the marathon. yikes! I know my fitness level is gradually improving, but I'm fearful for my running ability and the pre-marathon timeline. this training business is turning out to be a much bigger commitment than I ever anticipated.

Week #2 Update

training was derailed once again this week. The week started so well on Monday with an 8-miler on the treadmill at the gym after work... that's right folks, I ran 8 miles on the TREADMILL... what a drag. I'm going to have to get used to it though, given the crazy work schedule and the fact that I really don't like running when it's dark outside... and I can't drag myself out of bed early enough to run in the mornings, so it looks like my options are treadmill or bust. Either way, it was an amazing workout, I zoned out and ran a pretty easy pace, around 8:30 for the first 6 miles. I had only planned to run 6, but pushed myself to keep going. I really struggled through those last 2 miles, alternating between going all-out (around 6:30 miles) and short rest/recovery walks, I completed the entire 8 in under 1 hour 10 mins. Sweet! So proud of myself. I felt fantastic, was completely exhausted in a good way, grabbed a smoothie, then drove home & went right to bed.

Tuesday I was lucky enough to get out of work at lunch time and do a quick 3.5 miles around Stamford.

Then things got crazy at work. I had my runs all scheduled, just like last week, but I ended up having to sacrifice on Wed-Friday. The search I am working on is falling apart pretty quickly, so I had to spend pretty much all day scraping up new candidates, and despite all my efforts, ended up with absolutely nothing to show for it. The absolute last thing I could possibly do was leave the office to spend an hour of my day running. It was awful. By the time I got home each day, it was dark out and I didn't have the energy left to do anything.

To top things off, after Monday's run, I developed 2 gigantic blisters on my left foot, one right on the inside of my arch, and one directly on the ball of my foot, between by big toe and my second toe. Whenever I attempt to pop blisters, I always get carried away and end up cutting them off entirely. That's exactly what I did this time... exposing about 2 inches of raw skin... it hurt so bad I had to wear flip-flops. Chances are high that I probably couldn't have gone running even if I had the time.

This absolutely can not happen again.

Week #1 Update

My first week was a success! After my run on Tuesday, I was so thrilled with the idea of getting out of the office mid-day and fitting in my runs by scheduling them ahead of time, that I went ahead and planned the entire week in my outlook calendar. I ran every single day!