Training Diary: Week 7
Training Diaries: Week 7
Monday: I swear there are few better ways to wake up for the beginning of the week than to jump in a semi-cold pool and swim laps. You smell like chlorine for the rest of the day and my hair isn’t completely dry until lunch, but there is something so soothing about reflecting on your thoughts at the beginning of the week. It also doesn’t hurt that swimming requires no pounding on your body, which is a much appreciated break these days. I started my new work schedule this week, so I work 10:30-7:00 now. The only bright side to it is that I have plenty of time to get my butt out of bed in the morning to get a workout in or in contrast, sleep in if my body tells me too. The swim was nice this morning, and I think I am going to workout over lunch too. Sometimes there is just too much on my mind, and one workout won’t suffice/last me the entire day. I will take physical exhaustion if I can’t seem to get there mentally. One is better than none.
Tuesday: Yesterday I ended up being gone from my house from 6:30 AM to 12:30 AM…. It was a really really long Monday. So I decided that sleep was more important than an early workout, I only have 3 miles today and I can fit that in over lunch. So that is what I shall do. Audible Audible Audible. The run went well. It was super easy and it went by in a jiff. Ran at around a 8:45 pace and didn’t have any trouble. I did however forget to grab a towel before I got on the treadmill, which was annoying because I sweat more than any human I know. I went back to work sweaty and hungry, which is the theme of my life lately. Gotta run to the grocery when I get back home, and I’m already dreaming of my head hitting the pillow.
Wednesday: NO CARDIO day for Blaine! Back story: my mom had this great Goodwill find the other day and it really improved my home workout room. I now have 8lb, 10lb, 15lb, and 20lb weights! So I can get a really good upper body workout in without leaving my house, which is just what I have done the last two weeks. This morning I got up before work and threw on some random assortment of workout clothes and got sweating. My poor little arms were shaking after my supersets and I walked across the hall to get in the shower. No wasted time and I’ll be sore tomorrow. So the day started off with a win in my book. When I get home from work I am going to do more core work and foam roll and ice my feet before I go to bed. Therapy is becoming mandatory in this stage of the training.
Thursday: I woke up this morning an hour after my alarm went off, so no early morning leg workout for me today. The stupid thing is that I got a solid 8 hours of sleep, and I still feel like I got hit by a bus. But, I truck through it, just like every other day. I just can’t wait for Friday. Thursdays at work are reserved for pick-up basketball, and me and a few of my co-workers along with some people from safety play basketball at “Ball-thirty”, which just cracks me up. We had a blast for about an hour, hit the showers and then came back to the office. I only had 3 miles today, which takes me about 25 minutes, so I figure that 60 minutes of running and being a defensive machine will suffice today. When I get home around 9:00 I am going to do some leg work and hit the sack. I am so excited tomorrow is my off day.
Friday: I woke up this morning early to go to my Chiropractor before work. It is my off day, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to do things that are good for my body. I plan on going to bed pretty early tonight and getting plenty of rest for my 18 miler tomorrow morning. When you decide to train for something like this, you have to make sacrifices. You cannot become great by scooting by your whole life. No one will give you greatness, because some things cannot be bought, they have to be earned. So I am paying my dues and doing what has to be done. Which, to be honest with you, isn’t all that hard for me. I am definitely not acting like the workouts aren’t hard, but the schedule isn’t hard. I like to train and be regimented.
Saturday: Bailey and I killed the GAME today and ran 18 miles. It is the longest run of our training program so far. We ran all over Maysville. It started off pretty rough. I think the first mile was around 11 minutes (which is really slow for us). After we got done with the first three miles I started feeling a lot better. My Achilles and calves were hurting really bad, and once I got warmed up I got in my groove. I think its funny that I am getting back to the point where it takes 3 miles to feel warmed up haha. Brings back memories of marathon training. Anyway. I felt really good for the rest of the run. It went by really fast, and we laughed a lot per the usual. I swear if there was a video camera following us around, it would be a really funny reality show. The stuff we say. Running that much makes you almost delusional. Bailey didn’t wear good socks (we always wear thorlo socks for runs over 7 miles) and ended up getting really bad blisters during the run. Which is horrible feeling in case you have never felt that. She buckled down and we got it finished pretty fast, with our last mile run in 8:30 seconds. I swear we don’t even make sense haha. We always negative split our runs. I went home at took an ice bath, drank a powerade, and took a 4 hour nap. Because when you sleep you heal!
Sunday: I went to bed really early last night and slept for 12 hours. I felt pretty good when I woke up considering the mileage from the day before. I went to church and then came back home and was lazy again. I went to the Y around 5:00 to do my 7-miler on the treadmill (thunderstorm warnings all day), and was talking to bailey and decided to wait until the morning so we could run it together. I ended up walking a few miles and stretching for a while. Which was fine with me. I didn’t feel super good anyway.
Extras:
1. After reflecting on the last 6 weeks and looking at how we are working on this training, I am proud to say that Bailey and I have found a happy mental space. When it comes to training for something this overwhelming, it can get, well, overwhelming. You can analyze too much, you can slowly, without realizing, let it take over your whole brain capacity. We haven’t done that during this training. We do what we gotta do, and we don’t stress about it. It has been really refreshing. We are listening to our bodies and taking off days sometimes, and switching around workouts when we have to. We are getting our mileage in, but we are also LIVING. I am proud of that. Don’t get me wrong, I make a ton of sacrifices every week to make sure that I get my workouts in, but I am not dreading them. I look forward to them.
2. My Garmin “recovery time” is continuing to improve! After our 16 miler last Saturday it said 14 hours! That’s nuts!!! So much improvement over the last month or so! Thank goodness! It feels good to be back in somewhat of a groove.
3. On Monday night we met a good friend of ours, Ron at BDs and had the BEST time! My sisters and I all met in Lexington and we ended up staying at the restaurant for 3 hours. We talked about life, love, and Jesus. So you know it was a good time! Side note: Bd’s Mongolian Grill is an awesome place to go eat if you have food allergies! They have an “Allergy Zone” where they cook all of your food separately from everyone else’s and they have an extensive allergy information list for you to look at! Definitely one of the most allergy friendly places I have ever been and the food is awesome!
4. My client/friend, Andie met one of her goals this week and I literally wanted to jump out of my seat with joy! She ran her first mile, and pretty fast I may add! She is training for her first 5k, and I am so proud of her tenacity to reach her goals. I am just super proud of her. I love seeing people do awesome things.
5. Last week I finished my first Audible book when I was driving back and forth from work! It was the 5th book in the Beautiful Creatures series called Beautiful Redemption. I am now “reading” Looking for Alaska by John Green, and I am really enjoying it. I get bored really easy, and listening to these books make my drive go by faster. At this rate I am going to go through 1-2 books a week, which could get expensive….we shall see. I have never had a problem spending money on books. I have a small library already and I buy books all the time.
6. Since my 11 mile run during training week 5, my second toenail on my right foot has been throbbing constantly. I mean, to the point where it has been hard to wear close toed shoes. Yesterday I finally remedied this! I had a blood blister that had formed underneath my toenail (this seems to be a regular occurrence for me, I lost 6 toenails during my first marathon) and it was causing so much pressure I felt like my toenail was going to pop off. Yesterday I decided to transform into the Podiatrist that every long distance runner has within themselves and do an impromptu surgery. I cut my toenail down as far as it would go without cutting into the blister and popped that stupid thing with a sewing needle (which my mom came in clutch and left some in my kitchen that I didn’t even know were there). I videoed the whole thing, so I could share the disgustingness with my fellow runner buddies (because I know they will understand). I have a feeling this is the first of many toenail tragedies that will be happening over the next few months. Oh well…they cause more problems than they are worth anyway.
7. I have had some epiphanies lately with my health. I am not going to talk about them in detail right now. I will probably talk about it in months to come, but that will be down the road.
8. Toyota shuts down two times a year for a week, and next week happens to be one of those weeks! So, I have a week to relax, rest, find a place to live, sell my car, and buy another one. So, busy week ahead, but at least I get to hang out with Mia more.
9. My BFF Meghan is doing her first ½ Ironman, and let me tell you something. I am more proud of her than I can even put into words. She has worked so hard for so long to get ready for this. It’s no small feat to educate yourself on a whole new sport. A lot of people forget about all of that. It is a lot more than just training. Where do you think we get all of our information? We RESEARCH non-stop. We read and live in a certain lifestyle. It isn’t really part of our lives. Our lives revolve around it while we train. You might be wondering why on earth we would choose to get up at 4:40AM on the only day we can sleep in or why we choose to hobble around for days after a 4 hour training session. Well…it makes us who we are. It is so deep in the core of our being that we wouldn’t feel right without it. This is one of the reasons Meghan and I are so close. We respect each other, because we have both been there and know what kind of person it takes to do this stuff. Proud of you, Meg.
10. I am just really thankful for another week of good runs and a great life.