Rest Days on Purpose!

So, I was feeling pretty proud of myself after my 6 miles Wednesday. I've had this lingering cold that I haven't been paying much attention to and usually running makes me feel better.

Wednesday night, however, I did not feel so hot. When I sat down on the couch, I thought I may never get up again. When I woke up Thursday morning, everything seemed to be back to normal until about an hour into the school day. I was such an exhausted, achy, stuffy, pathetic mess. My students eyed me very suspiciously as I emptied an entire Kleenex box. I was almost certain I had THE FLU. Which would be so embarrassing because I've had every opportunity to get the flu shot, but just never got around to it.

I got through the school day, rested for a little while laying down my head on my desk on a pillow fashioned from my coat, got through PTO, and was so miserable by the time I drove home that I actually considered pulling over on the side of the road and calling my husband to come get me.

After a phone diagnosis from my mom, the doctor, and a home visit from my mother-in-law, the nurse, it was determined that I did not have the flu, just a really bad cold. Which made me grateful, but also made me feel like a pansy to be so decimated by just a cold.

Honestly though, this is the first time I've really been sick since college and if I'm only sick twice a decade, I think I have the right to be a complete baby when it does happen. Yesterday was pretty rough again, but a sub came for me at lunchtime and I got to go home and be pathetic without 26 little pairs of eyes watching my demise.

Today, I'm definitely not 100%, but I'm feeling a lot better. 10 miles in on my marathon training plan for today, but it's not happening. I'm a little concerned about getting behind on my training, but there's nothing I can do about it right now. I've got 12 miles on the schedule for next weekend and 12 the weekend after that.

How do you make up for missing a long run? Should I try to get it in, maybe on Tuesday, when I'm rested up? Or should I just forget about it, get my shorter runs this week and then go long next weekend?

Late and Sweaty

I did make it to church supper and stay for my committee meeting. I was, however, late and sweaty. It was worth it to get in 6 miles on a Wednesday!

Thanks for your comments on my last post. Obviously, it's got me thinking. I'm really bad about putting my runs and other workouts on the back burner and just squeezing them in when I have time. It's time to reorganize my schedule.

Not selfish enough? Or just lazy?

I'm mostly on my minimal training plan, but I want to tighten it up this week. After school lets out, there's only a limited amount of daylight (thank goodness it's a little more each day) and there are so many other things that creep in and take up my time. So things that I love, some that I've volunteered for, and some that I'm just stuck with.

It's just really hard for me to be selfish enough with my time to claim my time for workouts. I don't know of anyone else in my day-to-day life here that works out regularly. In this, the most unhealthy county of the 100 in North Carolina, it is not normal to have a fitness regime. I feel like many people here see working out as kind of a luxury or a waste of time just for people who don't have enough to spend their time/money on. By going out for a run, it looks like I'm putting it as a greater priority than my job, family, house, and all the other 100 other things I've got going on.

Obviously, in reality, I function so, so, so much better in all those other aspects of my life when I get in my runs and am healthy and active. It's just a little frustrating here to feel like you have to defend that.

Anyway, I'm rambling and whining, and those are two things I try to avoid. And honestly, I'm not a great model for physical health anyway (some of those missed workouts are just due to pure laziness and my diet has been one big junkfest lately), so I really shouldn't complain. Just wondering if anyone else ever feels this way.

Totally Unprepared

I will not be earning my marathon training merit badge. Or at least, I haven't been on that track for the past 2 weeks. I had my glorious 7-miler the Sunday before last and then got in a tiny bit during the week. I was supposed to do 8 last weekend, but I was in a Girls on the Run training session (which I'm super excited about!) for 8 hours and spent 10 hours driving, so I decided to push it to Monday. It was raining cats and dogs on Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons got packed before I could speak up, and that led us straight up to this weekend.

I decided that I just needed to get up and run 9 miles this morning. Get back on track.

I was totally unprepared. I had a few dehydrating beverages last night, my iPod needed charging, my GU Chocolate Outrage stash was depleted, my favorite running socks were hiding at the bottom of a laundry basket of clean clothes, and it turns out, I had no idea what temperature to dress for. (I'm really bad at paying attention to the weather forecast. Last night, the guy on the news said it was about to warm up. I listened. I just pulled on shorts, a tank top, and a long sleeve dri-fit, thinking I'd loose the sleeves a mile in. I was still wearing it at mile 4 when I noticed the puddles I ran by were frozen over. Apparently the warm up hasn't started yet.)

I knew it was time for 9 miles though. I went out the door with confidence and visualized myself calling my mom and my marathon partner afterwards with my successful news of a great run.

It worked. It was a great run- 9 miles, not fast or anything, but not painful in the least. It's almost a little scary how great I felt and feel now.

As I mentioned last time, I don't plan on ever running more than 7 miles again without some kind of fuel. Since I was out of GUs, I dug around in my running basket and found a package of Power Bar Strawberry Banana Energy Gel Blasts (what a mouthful!) from an old race pack that I decided to try out.

I can't really review this product accurately, because apparently, at some point, I had left these gel blasts in a position to be melted. (Back seat of my car, perhaps?) Around mile 4, when I opened the package, instead of finding 9 neat little gel blasts, I discovered one giant clump of gummy material.

The task before me was to consume what looked and felt like a small jellyfish jammed inside a plastic package without breaking stride. Fortunately, I was on the outskirts of town at this point and there were no passer-byers to gawk at me while I tore off pieces of the hunk with my teeth like a wild animal. It was kind of ridiculous.

It had the intended effect, however, and it was as tasty as something resembling a jellyfish could be. I ate in a couple different segments over miles 4-7 with a little water in between, and I had energy all the way through. (Even the last 3.5 miles, which I, (gasp!), ran without my iPod, since it died because it wasn't fully charged.)

Anyway, I think I've tested fate long enough and intend to actually get back on my regular training schedule now. Just registered!

The Streak that Wasn't

So, obviously, I'm not living up to my blog title and am not sure about when it will happen. I first attempted a 365 day running streak on April 25, 2007. It started when I was student teaching in Costa Rica, led me up to my half marathon PR, and carried me through a very, very rough first 6 months of teaching.

There were good weeks.

And there were bad weeks.

On day 275, I just forgot to run. Which is a pretty lame way to end a running streak. I was horrified when I looked at the clock and saw midnight had come and gone without me thinking to lace up my shoes.

So, I tried again, starting April 25, 2009. And if any of y'all were watching, you know how (un)successful that was.

2010 was kind of nuts, for a variety of reasons, but I thought I'd kind of just give it a go on 1/1/11 just to see what happened. I didn't tell anybody because a) I wasn't actually sure if I was completely committed to another running streak, b) I didn't want to be (rightfully) judged/mocked for failing at this again, and c) I wanted to see how long I could keep up daily running until my husband caught on.

For 20 days, I was in. Well, as in as one can be when one is snowed/iced in multiple days and refuses to run more than 1 mile on the treadmill. On the 21st day, however, it came down to one of those ridiculous scenarios-choosing between a close-to-midnight treadmill run that would have caused an argument, or abandoning my 20 days of progress. Guess what I chose.

So, 2011 is not the year of 365 runs. Oh well. It will be the year of my second marathon, my graduation from my masters program, my first time as a running coach, and whatever other adventures lay around the bend!