tear it up

It’s been a week of ups and downs across the board (school, sleep, running). It’s a cutback week and my goal mileage is 38.5, leaving me with about ten miles left to do in the morning (2@ E pace, I think 4-6 X 5-6 minutes T pace + 1 min recovery – or something like that, and 2@ E pace). It doesn’t add up, but you know. I should have done it this morning, but I didn’t wake up early enough and ended up running on campus at 10am after I got some things done over there…it was surprisingly not awful, but I was feeling it towards four miles and stopped to get a water about a mile from my office. The guy in front of me was soaked with sweat and buying a 22 ounce bottle of Busch Light. Nice. I only had two dollars, so. Just kidding, two dollars is probably enough for that.

I would feel nice doing a long run in the morning and was thinking about it, but realized that’s dumb going into a peak mileage week – save the unbridled enthusiasm for a few days from now when I need it. It might be an ugly week since I am supposed to have a couple of morning appointments and both are far enough away that I can’t run before them and get there in time.

On Wednesday, I was brilliant and decided to go down by the river at 4:30 in the afternoon. Holy crap. If I take a walk break, it’s rarely more than .05 or possibly .10 of a mile, but I can safely say I walked at least 1/3 to 1/2 of the seven miles my feet moved. My average pace was 11:45/mile. It was hot, humid, the air was generally stagnant as hell, and I thought I was going to throw up almost the entire time. Not sure what I was thinking, but wow, walking sucks. It takes twice as long to get anywhere and you’re way hot from moving so slow. Bummer. Worse than my own personal ineptitude, the water in the creek was still blue from a chemical spill last week that dumped toilet bowl cleaner, among other things, into the water after an industrial fire. It smelled like bathroom cleaner…sad.

meat feet

Things that apparently become a big deal within a month of a goal race: people within 20 feet of you coughing or sneezing, blisters, and a couple of extra pounds. Brian was sick last week. I did some daytime sleeping over the weekend and avoided catching whatever he had. I hate to say it and want to knock on wood when I do, but I pretty rarely get sick. I didn’t have as much as a cold from February 2004 until May 2007 when I had shingles (and didn’t realize it until it was almost gone). I’ve only had one or two sinus/cold type things since then, but otherwise I am pretty lucky.

That brings me to blisters and my new shoes. Maybe change is not a good thing. I thought I was doing a little baby step by getting an updated version of my same shoe, but now I’ve got some updated tiny but mighty blisters on my right big toe and left ball of my foot, under the callous instead of on top of the skin. Oh, blast. Please go away and do not make me overnight a pair of my old shoes from Zappos.com. I’m pretty sure my big toe is also growing laterally, but I have very weird looking feet so I might have just not noticed before.

And then the pounds. I still haven’t dropped weight I gained over the holidays and it’s almost March, so that is kind of pathetic. I’m a pretty bad night eater, especially if I can’t sleep and I stay up doing something (as opposed to laying in bed trying to fall asleep). So, I have been trying to get ready to sleep a little earlier to avoid being up late. I had to weigh myself in kinesiology this afternoon and it wasn’t too bad, but I could still drop some kgs. It strikes me as supremely lame to complain about my weight because I am well within a healthy range and I also just feel like it’s not something you should do if you are a “nutrition professional” or grad student in my case. It does not generally come across well and seems a little judge-y. I am happy to be healthy and fit. I’m not thinking I am in the best or worst shape, but I have been in better shape so I guess I feel a little guilty that I am lacking in the motivation department lately. It is hard when you spend a huge amount of your time on food, health, body weight, etc. Not just thinking about it in a ho-hum way, but doing research, writing papers, meetings, seminars, classes all the time. Sometimes, enough is enough and I don’t want to wax poetic on it if I don’t have to, though I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner with my two favorite hobbies being running and baking. This all combined with not having a full time job is making me kind of depressed, which I finally admitted to myself the other morning and is pretty fair. I miss having a solid routine, even if I didn’t always like it, and finishing the day feeling like I did something (okay, maybe I am romanticizing work here). So, in some ways I feel like since I am not doing so hot in the financial department, I should be picking it up everywhere else by doing really well in school, stepping up my marathon training, keeping my house in order. Not sure what I can really do to fix this; I’ve been pursuing other work, but nothing is panning out. I am simultaneously underwhelmed and overwhelmed.

Anyway, sorry for the Debby Downer there. Not sure where that came from. This has been a good week. Nothing standout. I’m at 23 miles or so and had a really good spin class yesterday – which actually lasted the full 45 minutes. It never fails that I complain about something and then I feel bad about it. My long run this week is uncertain. I am thinking about skipping it/doing something shorter tomorrow because my feet are killing me, but I’ve been wearing some old shoes around the house for better support (instead of slippers or flops) and hopefully the blisters will calm down. This afternoon, I ran seven on the treadmill and my feet felt like they’d been pounded by a mallet when I was done, so doing 18 or 20 on the road sounds scary – but I really want to get two more long runs in (this week and next) before doing a decent taper. This Saturday is a big fundraiser for AIDS Athens and helping to setup/cleanup the event will probably take up the majority of the day/night.

four letter words that start with s

I’m starting to think that I’m carrying around some bad race juju. Temperatures in the 20s during my last 5k, and now it’s snowing. The website for Run the Reagan says the start will be delayed two hours, putting my 13.1 start at 10am. The race is an out and back on a closed highway. I’m not really sure where that ranks in prioritizing clearing ice/snow. Pretty low, I would guess. It will take me about an hour and a half to get down there via 78 and 316, so I’m going to have to wait and see if the roads are clear in the morning. If everything is go, I have the feeling it’s going to be another tights+socks day…it’s super cold out there! The high for tomorrow was supposed to be 48F and now it’s saying a high of 37F.

Sorry for the bathroom photo. My arms weren’t long enough.

foiled!

I had some mild foot pain Monday night that turned into mega, bad-attitude-inducing foot pain on Tuesday, so I bit the bullet and went to the sports medicine clinic today to have it checked out. The PA was super nice and helpful and basically told me it was most likely some tendinitis that would clear up in a week or two if I ice it, take some pain relievers (no, not painkillers, unfortunately), and avoid doing anything that hurts. What a novel concept! I’m cranky that it snuck up on me like that, but hopefully it is NBD and clears up fast. She also recommended some special insoles for my arches because they’re high and I enjoy wearing high quality sneakers like Vans and Converse on a day to day basis, whose total lack of support probably isn’t helping my feet much after running. Oh, well. Not like anyone likes being sick or hurt, but it is annoying me to not be able to do what I want to do, especially when so many people don’t want to do anything anyway! Although right now, what I want to do is go home and go to sleep, but work and studying call.