Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Lessons Learned

So the past couple weeks have been tough on my training schedule.  I was swamped with work and also traveled 18 hours round trip in my car to visit my family.  They live near the Pennsylvania/New York border, south of Buffalo, and man was it cold!  While up there I planned to run outside for my long run of 5 miles, until it decided to snow and cover the roads with a nice slippery sheet of ice.  My running shoes have zero traction, so I had to run inside on a treadmill instead.  Ugh.  I made it 3 miles  and almost died of boredom.  After that I said a little prayer of "thank you" for the fact that I live in southeast Virginia, where the coldest it's been lately has been maybe 40 degrees.  I had a great time visiting my family, but when I returned, I had lots of work and 22 very anxious fourth graders waiting for me.  Once we got out for winter break, I proceeded to sleep 12 hours straight from sheer exhaustion.  I think my body was trying to tell me something.  


I didn't run again until this past Saturday, when I went a little over 4 miles.  The main problem?  My iPod lied to me.  I got the new little iPod Nano (so cute!) as an early Christmas present from my hubby, and I never calibrated it beyond entering my height and weight.  I found out my mistake when I returned to my house.  It said that I ran 4.9 miles and I was pretty happy with that.  But part of me felt this nagging suspicion that I didn't run quite that far.  I hopped in my car to drive around and check the mileage, and sure enough, I only ran 4.2 miles.  Wamp wamp.  I learned my lesson though, and I will definitely be calibrating the darn thing before I use it again.  After that run, my knees hurt SO BAD, and I knew it was because I didn't run at all last week.  Another lesson learned.  I realized that I'm going to have to stick to my training schedule if I'm going to pull this race off.  


I started the week off right by taking my dog for a walk on Sunday to stretch mine and his legs.  Yesterday I took a rest day since my knees were still sore, and this morning I met a friend to go for a run outside.  We started out on our 2 mile course, and after about 5 minutes a nice, cool rain started coming down.  It actually felt really refreshing!  We ran from a local high school down to a river dock, which was neat to see, even on a stormy day.  At the end of our run, we ran into another friend who was walking her dog, so it was nice to stop and chat for a bit.  My legs felt much better today, and I plan to go for a 3 mile run tomorrow.  


I will stick to my schedule, and I WILL run 7 miles THIS SATURDAY.  Sounds scary, but I know after those first couple miles I will find my stride.  




My mantra: I can do this, and I will.  

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