Real Talk: Shit Happens (training recap Mar. 20-26)

MONDAY March 20th

Flat-to-Hill repeats! 9km total (treadmill)

4km easy, [8 x 1:30 flat-to-hill reps, 1:30 recovery jogs], cool down jog. So good!!!

TUESDAY March 21st

10.5km easy with the 6am lady crew + extra stretching. Love those chicks. We love “morning pace” haha

WEDNESDAY March 22nd

60 minutes in the pool swimming lengths!! Ummm swimming is SO HARD. Unexplored territory since the 90’s!  + foam rolling

THURSDAY March 23rd

11.4km easy with 6am lady crew + extra stretching

Learn2Run Clinic – 6km run/walk intervals. Spring weather!!!

FRIDAY March 24th

Timed intervals! 11km total (treadmill)

3km easy up, [4 x 5 min @ 7:35/mi, 3 min recovery jogs], couple cool down kms. BOOM.

*notice how the week up until now has no real kinks worth mentioning..

SATURDAY March 25th

4.5km death march with frown on face, quit 12km early and walked home…

Background info: I am a terrible sleeper. Even when I was little I had trouble falling and staying asleep. The situation has improved a lot in the last few years, especially since I quit drinking, but I still have a hard time getting enough quality rest on a regular basis. More often than not, I go to bed early, fall asleep for a few hours, and then roll around fake sleeping until 5:30 or 6 when I get up.

This morning (Saturday) I dragged myself out of bed for my “long run” of the week, which actually isn’t that long at all, and I had an off-feeling that was building since last night. All week I wasn’t getting enough rest. My training load is up there right now too. Normally I do a very good job of operating on not a lot of sleep, but it caught up to me this week hard.

The scheduled was for 10 miles, or 16km, with a fast finish in the last 5km for a Zone 4 heart-rate, and I was really looking forward to it earlier in the week! I look forward to 99% of my runs and really love getting them done before work, it’s so satisfying, but by the time I left the house just after seven this morning, I was beyond dreading it, and I wasn’t meeting anyone which didn’t help. The dread built up as I got dressed, had coffee, got my shoes on…it was just one of those days where I did NOT want to go anywhere. You know the kind. What I wanted was to be able to take the day off work, get back into bed with my husband and sleep for a really long time and do the run later or tomorrow. “Poor me” was the theme of the morning.

I hit the road anyway, planning to get it done, feeling heavy and slow on my feet but telling myself that it’s always like this for the first 10-20 minutes. It will pass. I’ll feel energized soon. I get to warm up for 10 kilometres! The wind and rain will stop pissing me off as soon as I find my groove. I’ll wake up! But after just about 5km and a couple walk breaks (I think I was walking with my eyes closed?) I started having a conscious debate in my head (you know the one):

“Fuck this shit.

But doing it now is always way better than saving it for later!

But I am so tired. I feel like the walking dead. I could go to sleep on this sidewalk

You have to be able to push past this kind of shit.

I have no energy, and I never quit, so today it’s fine to just go home this one time..

You will be so happy after work if you already did it!

It’s supposed to be nicer after work though, and maybe I’ll have more energy.

But quitting sucks and you will feel shitty for giving up. That’s the worst.

It’s only 16km. It is easy to reschedule. Later or tomorrow are both options.”

And then I stopped running, turned left instead of continuing out the highway where I was headed, and walked home pouting. FFFFFF!

I was in the worst mood! I hate giving up and I know I could have powered through, but it’s easy to say that after! I showered, went into my bed for the sixty minutes I had before it was time to get ready for work and actually slept, got up sadly to a second alarm, was a total asshole to my husband, and left in a miserable mood, looking as lovely as I felt. LOL.

Things I learned from this by Saturday afternoon

1. even though I have far fewer “shitty runs” than when I first began running regularly, they can and do still happen, and will. They happen to everyone. Don’t forget.
2. It’s okay to reschedule things around “life” which includes being exhausted.
3. It’s really dumb and unecessary to let a bad run affect my mood for any longer than it takes to shower and change.
4. The belief that “I’m a bad sleeper” doesn’t serve me. “I love going in my bed and resting as much as I can” is better. Also, naps are good for me. Nap more.
5. Lack of sleep can make a sub-optimal situation seem far worse than it actually is.

Oh, and ordering a new pair of runners and registering for an inexpensive 10km race six months away is mood boosting…hehehe

Things I learned, generalized

1. Shit happens and always will. Try again.
2. Be flexible
3. Let it go.
4. Do what you can.
5. Reality checks are helpful and necessary.

The point of this reflection actually boils down to things like being flexible, letting go of things that didn’t go as planned, and trying again when the first try wasn’t a success.

I really hate the feeling of quitting, who doesn’t? But, life is life, and in this particular situation I have more than enough time to give it another go before Monday. For those of you for whom endurance training is not a passion, you might be thinking that I’m a drama queen who has attached an extremely odd level of importance to the scheduled run I didn’t complete (yet). I won’t get into it too much, but the goals I’m working towards and the schedule I’m following from Coach Andrew are really important to me, and what I love the most when it comes to extra curriculars. The point of this reflection actually boils down to things that apply to any situation in life, like being flexible, letting go of things that didn’t go as planned, and trying again when the first try wasn’t a success. You don’t see a ton of content on social media platforms about shitty, unsuccessful anythings, so this is just my account of what actually went down in my life this morning to keep it real haha. I have officially decided to go for sushi with my sister after work, go to bed early, and start over tomorrow.

You don’t see a ton of content on social media platforms about shitty, unsuccessful anythings, so this is just my account of what actually went down in my life this morning to keep it real haha.

SUNDAY March 26th

Planned: 60 minute cross train (active recovery)

Actual: 16km – last 5km up-tempo into a Zone 4 heart-rate

Nailed it! 11km by feel, 5km up-tempo. Every day is different. Things that were very helpful this morning, however, were bright colours, a new playlist with some House of Pain, Aqua and Coolio, and actually sleeping last night! The weather was very cooperative too, but that’s just pure luck of the draw.

An interesting observation is that the first five days of my week were bang-on and awesome. Then one day of shitting the bed on a run and everything seems crappy. Lame! Focus on the positive. And this is why I am doing a weekly recap now, because the big picture of this past week was really REALLY good. Don’t let a shitty run F with you. Or a shitty day or meeting or exam or gym sesh. Have a good Sunday!!!

 

Four weeks out from the Tenacious Ten in Seattle!

Nine weeks out from the Calgary Marathon!