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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