Pain & Gain

Week 6 of half marathon training is a wrap.  Thank God.  I mean, I loved it but I really love that it's over, this week whooped my booty.

Monday I ran on a treadmill looking for a great pace/time.  I ran SO HARD and only came up with shaving a minute off my 'fast-ish' pace.  Stupid treadmill.  I really feel like it's just so much more work on those things.  I'm breaking up with the treadmill unless we get 67 feet of snow. Oh, and I was sore after this run.

Wednesday was my four miler.  I laugh because in four miles I can pretty much cover all of my small town.  That's pretty funny until you have to run on a 4 lane highway and that's pretty intimidating to me, so I run fast(er) to leave that road to the huge, thundering trucks.  I don't think mace can keep a truck from running you over, speaking of which...I need to get mace. (still pretty sore here!)

It's Thursday now and my glute is borderline painful.  You know that 'good sore' you get and you feel all strong and happy because you know you had a really effective workout?  Well, it wasn't that.  I was hurting.

So, I 'rested' on Friday with a 2.5 mile recovery walk.  A very easy, easy walk followed by tons and tons of foam rolling.  Tons.

Friday night I went to a fundraiser and had 95 glasses of cabernet, ate red meat and stayed up late.  This is what every runner does prior to a long run, right?  (urgh.)

Saturday is here and I have 8 miles to churn out.  EIGHT MILES.  My headache reminds me of the cabernet I should not have had and I slowly roll out of bed, pop some ibuprofen and begin to hydrate.  A bit later I ate oatmeal and a banana, and then drank a Sugar Free Rockstar.

I geared up, fired up the tunes and headed out the door toting a half bottle of water.

• One mile down, I remember thinking, wow...that felt like forever.
• Two miles - I set the water bottle on a bridge, tired of carrying it.  Carrying it was pretty annoying actually.  This meant my only form of refueling would be at 6 miles.
• Mile three...I look ahead and hmmm, it's looking like this road is going uphill.  What.
• Mile four is over and I'm SPENT, but now I turn around and it's downhill and I'm halfway!  (I ran four miles out and had to go four miles back to get home)  Headwind.
• Mile five.  Totally ran out of gas, I needed and missed my GU energy!  this is also where I change my music to Eminem, this helped a lot.  Apparently, lots of f-bomb dropping keeps me running.  
• Six.  There's my water, while it's refreshing...it's not what my tummy liked.  I tread on and realize this is all in my own head now.  I think, time to go back to my basics...I change the music to military cadences and they carried me home.  I don't even remember mile seven.  I do remember that I hurt all over, ALL OVER.  

But guess what?  I ran 8 miles and can't wait to do it again this Saturday.  And?  I have already scheduled a running partner.  How do I feel today?  I feel amazing...not sore but accomplished and eager to keep going.  Ok, I'm a little sore.

Week 7?  Bring it on.  Definitely less wine, though.

(this image totally choked me up)