Progress!

Week 3 or 4? I can't remember. I'm feeling pretty good about AT LEAST shaving some time off my 13.1 PB. 8 miler yesterday at high noon was hot, and sometimes challenging with hills and traffic, but it was not miserable and once I got to where I had some cool wind in my face and a stretch of uninterrupted running, my pace stayed below 10:00.

The toughest part was trying to start running again after being stopped at a light. Some of the crossing signals did not work. Ended up standing at some for a while before I decided to just book it, but then I rested so long my knees and locked up. ARRGH! That hurts! Starting again while in pain like that, it took time to get back to a decent pace.

I may just do my next long runs in the 'hood on my little .5 mile stretch of road. It's mind numbing, but it's safer and uninterrupted. Also at home in case I'm running behind schedule. Little Girl's school is right there.

Starting to feel good about this!

Emotions Run Amok

Haha! I've always loved this picture from the "first world problems" memes. It's actually quite fitting for last week's flub of a training week though, and that I don't quite love.

It's getting down to the last itty bitty of this current deployment for my husband, which always puts me on edge without fail (always the feeling of the other shoe dropping, last minute extensions etc...). It's also the start of lots of new things for my children that I'm dealing with without my more rational half. Ms. Hotmess will be going to school without her beloved brother, who she's made the responsible party for all her comfort and happiness, and it's Mr. Handsome Pant's first year in middle school. I'm a mother truckin' mess!

Last week started off well with the 1/2 training, but as it wore on to a week till 1st day of school, I started letting myself get overwhelmed. When this chic gets overwhelmed, nothing outside of making sure the kids are fed, clothed, and loved gets done right. Therefore, I missed two days of run training. Two pretty important ones, actually.

Thankfully, I've been building my training base and that week will not hurt me TOO much, but I really need either for my husband to get back on time, or to learn some new coping skills when the going gets rough. Really, there are worse things to worry about in the world, so I should be able to handle business and get training done good and right. Never admitted to being Ms. Put Together during deployments though.

New week and game on. Full on strength training yesterday and a straight up run today.

The best thing...

...I can do for this training is to not play the football until after the Koko Half. Every time I play during the weekend it takes me till Wednesday to recover. My training runs suffer. My head hurts, my lungs feel shrunken, my heart rate is out of whack, everything is stiff from my neck to the arches of my feet. The runs are off pace by a good 45 seconds per mile and every single mile is painful. It sucks.

The problem is I feel terrible about not being there for my team and our sponsor. Even when I'm in bed sick, I feel horrible if I'm not on the field helping out. Every time I say I'm going to take a break to focus on something else, I get drawn in. I'm weak and don't know how to say "no".

7-a-side starts this Sunday. *sigh*

A Realization

So, today I had to do a run on the track. Very controlled environment so I could analyze the run. I have always been pressured to lengthen my stride and look straight ahead of me, but today, as I carried my phone with my miCoach app running, I found that when I did that, my pace was slower. When I shortened my stride and looked just ahead of my feet, my pace was much faster. Huh! Very, very useful information. I am much more comfortable with the short strides.