Saturday, January 9, 2021

56 Days Until Race Day

Well, it's been a few days since I have updated. Wednesday's events hit me really hard (I plan to write a separate post about that later...hopefully...), and I spent a lot of Wednesday night and early Thursday doomscrolling through Facebook posts before I finally decided to pull myself away. I knew that the constant scrolling and comment reading was awful for me, yet I couldn't pull myself away. 

Today, however, I took a break from social media for most of the day, and it was fantastic! I started my day with an early 8-mile run with Sandra, then I came back home and took a big fat nap. Then I woke up and met my Slow Mode friends for a 4-mile run at the LSU lakes. I had the paces for my Saturday and Sunday runs flipped in my head, so I was actually a little speedy on this morning's run. That's okay, though! I might take tomorrow a little slower depending on how I feel in the morning.

After several days of chili for dinner, I decided to break the monotony by picking up dinner from Raising Cane's. I was a bit ambitious and bought a Caniac Combo that ended up being dinner and a fourth meal all in one...no complaints. Tonight, I made gumbo, did some laundry, and straightened up my closet while listening to a Spotify playlist, and it was such a nice change of pace. Now that I have had my Raising Cane's 4th meal, I'm propped up on my couch under a heated blanket watching "You've Got Mail" and writing my daily blog post while a Christmas-tree scented candle burns...not a bad way to spend an evening.

I remain three workouts behind, but I have managed to make up all of my tempo runs and speedwork. I had a good chat with Ellen while we walked on Wednesday, and I think it's best for me to continue following my plan without trying to catch up the missed workouts. The last thing I want to do is injure myself because I was trying to make sure I did every workout on my plan, so I am giving myself some grace. While I am going to try to stick to the plan going forward, I imagine this will not be the last time I end up missing a workout. 

Here's how running went since my last post:

  • Tuesday, 1/5 - Made up the tempo run from 12/31 - 1 mile warmup, 8 tempo miles (10:52-11:27 min/mile), 1 mile cooldown - my actual pace was 11:00. Woo!
  • Wednesday, 1/6 - Day off/walk only day
  • Thursday, 1/7 - Made up the speed work from 1/5 - 1.5 mile warmup, 4 x 1000 m (9:10-9:50) + 400 m recovery, 1.5 mile cooldown - my average pace on the speed intervals was 9:06, so I was actually a little fast
  • Friday, 1/8 - Made up the tempo run from 1/7 - 1 mile warmup, 8 tempo miles (10:52-11:27 min/mile), 1 mile cooldown - my actual pace was 10:50. 
  • Saturday, 1/9 - Finally did a workout on the assigned day! I was supposed to do 8 miles easy (12:05-12:41) but had long run paces (11:41-12:16) in my head...and then Sandra and I beat those by averaging 11:18. 
I am starting to feel like I could actually run a sub-5:00 marathon in 8 weeks, which is a good feeling. I know a lot can happen in 56 days, so I am trying to stay grounded. Watching my paces improve (especially meeting those speework intervals under 10:00!) is good motivation not to miss workouts, but we'll see if that holds true once the weekend is over.




Something that made today great: Tough to pick just one, but I have to go with the nap I took after my first run

Time I woke up: 5:40 am

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