Sunday morning sunrise long run. My favorite time of the week. The world is so quite.

Training Diaries: Week 5

Monday: Bailey and I bailed on the AM workout in favor of sleeping in a little longer (ultra training makes for tired sisters). I waited for Bailey to get off work at 6:30 and we started our workout at around 7:45. I was feeling pretty laid back, and I knew we would get a good workout in. We did our workout in the front yard of my parent’s house while listening to music and dancing between sets of burpees and lunges. It was a fun workout and we got a lot of good core work in. After we were finished we went and watched my dad and brother play softball for our church league. It was a great way to end the sweaty night.

Tuesday: Tuesday was brutal; I’m not going to lie. It was a combination of mother nature/humidity/sore legs. Bailey and I ran at around 10:00 on the cross country course. We are making ourselves run hills, because that is what our race will be. We were both tired even though it was only 3 miles. When we got finished with the brutal run, I was really proud of us. We didn’t stop, we didn’t have water, we ran the hills hard, and we got it done. That’s all you can do some days. It takes mental toughness to be a runner, and I am glad we are getting that back. We are going to need it for this training.

Wednesday: This is our no-cardio day of the week. We just do an upper body workout. I actually did it with my client, Andie. We went to the Y and did a pretty hard upper body workout. I have noticed that even though I am still lifting during my training, I am losing a good amount of strength, but I am determined to keep lifting. I know it will make me a better runner because of it, and I AM NOT going back to having stick arms and not being able to do a push-up. I have worked too hard for my mildly muscular arms.

Thursday: It is my first day of work, and I had a 4:30AM wake-up call, and didn’t fall asleep until after midnight. Nothing like starting your first day of work on a whole 4 hours of sleep. I knew I wouldn’t have a problem getting up (at least of my first day). People who know we really well know that I am very good at sleeping through my alarms…it is a bad habit of mine. My body is just so tired all the time. I can’t control it. I don’t even hear it. Anyway, back to the point. I had a great first day of work. It was so busy and exhausting, but It went by fast. I ended up walking around 8 miles while I was there. When I got home around 6:45 I was too tired to run. I know that is an excuse, but I honestly felt horrible. I was just ready to crash. So I listened to my body. I will just run my 3-miler tomorrow. My legs got enough work today.

Friday: I brought my running clothes to work and plan on running the 3-miler I missed yesterday over work. I honestly think I might just listen to my exhausted body and take a break today. I have had a really hard week health wise, and I think my body needs a break. It is being pretty frustrating.

Saturday: Bailey and I got a late start on our run, and by late, I mean 4:00 PM. It has been impossible to run this late all summer, but we got a little bit of heavenly running weather and had an amazing run. It was around 60 degrees and cloudy. I know that sounds dreary, but it was so perfect. I am going to be honest with you. I was having a pity party all day Saturday, and was feeling bad for myself. I normally don’t do this, but this whole week has been rough and I was starting to question my ability to train for this race. I went into the run, and God took good care of me. It was a good reminder why I love to run so much. I needed this run so much, and I think God knew that. It was easy, went by fast, and Bailey and I really had a good therapy session. Runs like that make me feel mushy inside, and really really blessed to alive and to be able to run. I go through some crappy stuff, but nothing feels better than the end of a run. It makes you feel like anything is possible and your problems feel small again. 11 miles went by quick.

Sunday: Bailey and I both had busy morning, and had to be done with our 10 miler by 8:00, so we started at around 6:15, and ran all around Maysville. This is the first time I have run double digit mileage two days in a row. I have read about it a lot, and it is a very important part of ultra marathon training. You have to be able to run through the soreness. Bailey and I both felt pretty heavy for the first couple miles, but we started to get our stride after mile 4, and negative split the rest of the run. I have also noticed that my recovery time is improving. It is a feature on my Garmin, it tells you how many hours you need to recover from your run. The last 10 miler I ran it said I needed 76 hours (not that I took it), but yesterday it said I needed 40 hours. I love seeing improvement, and getting in the groove of the longer distance. I have also noticed that my average heart rate is also starting to improve. When I first started training again, it was through the roof. My average is already between 10-20 beats lower and it is only week 5. That is one of my main goals in this training. It is good to reflect on the little changes that happen during training.

Extras:

1. On Monday I got a call from work, and found out I start on Thursday! I am excited and nervous at the same time. My life is going to change a lot all at once. So here we go! Can’t look back now J

2. I have been making a lot of recipes the last week, and I am excited to share them with you. Believe it or not, some of them are even savory!

3. Tori Kelly’s CD came out this week, and I love her! On my first morning of work, Kel surprised me with it along with the sweetest note (I told you we were a note family). There was no better way to start my day. Along with phone calls and text messages from all of my favorite people. It really does mean a lot when people are thoughtful. It made feel really confident going into work.

4. I realized that I can’t hang with all of you coffee drinkers. I normally just drink 4oz of coffee, and since I had to get up so early, I decided that 8oz would probably be a good idea. Boy, was I wrong. I felt horrible! My hands were shaking when I was trying to do my paperwork. My boss asked if I wanted coffee and I laughed out loud and told her what happened. She thought it was hilarious. I am weak sauce.

5. On my first day of work, something wonderful happened! Everyone went to the gym at Ball:Thirty! I didn’t bring my gym clothes with me because I figured that would be frowned upon on your first day of work, but boy was I wrong! I went to the gym with them and had a blast.

6. The Toyota gym is AWESOME!!! They even have a nature path around the plant, which is over 2 miles long. I am pretty excited that I will be able to workout while I am here sometimes. It will be a very good back-up.

7. On Friday, Gay Marriage became legalized throughout the U.S. I know some of you who read this won’t be happy about this. As I have grown up and experienced more people, it takes you off your proverbial high horse (thank goodness). I am FOR everyone, and that is how I feel about this issue too. I love people, plain and simple. I’m not trying to preach at you, It just made me happy for all of those people. “Christians” should be most concerned about how to show people God’s love. Period. That is why we are on this earth. This isn’t me disregarding the bible. This is me doing something God commands and being more concerned with bringing people to God, than making people not feel good enough to be loved by a God who loves everyone.

8. On Friday night I got to hang out with my cousin Erica and her son Cash. It was so much fun. She lives in Georgetown, where I work and is only 3 miles from my work. We had a blast talking about her wedding and she taught me all kinds of makeup tricks. I really wanted to learn how to contour and she is really good with makeup. I in turn gave her booty building exercises! We all have our niche haha.

9. I am going to get mushy for a second. This week was really hard on me. I had a horrible week health wise. I really did give myself a little pity party for a few hours, and then something wonderful happened, and it reminded me of why I write this blog. I write this blog to remind myself that when I am going through something, God has my back. I needed a good run on Saturday so bad. I needed to feel healthy, and I got just that. Just when I thought I was going to lose it, I found it. It is a good reminder. Don’t stop. I could have easily sulked in bed, but I ran. I ran and it made me feel strong and happy. It made me love my body and its power, when I had been questioning it the last week. So, if you are feeling stuck or crappy, just pray about it, and go be healthy. Be in as much control of your future as you can be and let God be you guide.

10. My beastly little bro did the Tough Mudder on Saturday!! I did this back in 2012, and he has wanted to do it ever since, Reese is a MONSTER in the gym!! He got a few PRs himself in the gym this week. Including a 300 lb bench. Kudos to having a #fitfam #merica

Training Diary: Week 5