Run, Rest, Repeat ~ Week Three Review

For the last three weeks I have been running about 6 days a week. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again, this is new to me. My mileage hasn't increased that much, maybe 5-7 miles a week but the quality of my runs has increased 100%!  I feel better, stronger, more fluid, less swelling and less stiffness.  Working with a coach is the most exciting thing to come along in my running since I hit a sub 30 5k.  He's helped me to define goals and visualize myself achieving them. Normally I just hope to hit some goal with poor training and minimal running.

I had a good week of running, which I was surprised because of my race last weekend.  My weight workout on Tuesday was rough but the rest of the week was about what I expected.  I was also battling some sort of stomach bug. My energy was low and early in the week, when I'd eat, I'd get extremely dizzy. I'm glad it only stuck around a couple days. 

I was very pleased with my workout on Wednesday morning. Seems morning is the time I should be running for my best pace.  

Thursday's track run was hard, 79 degrees felt more like 99 degrees.  I wrote my goal times for each 100m on my hands and was able to stay under an 8 minute mile pace. I'll take that!  My Tinkerbell came with me and ran one of my warmup laps, then she spent the rest of the time hiding under the bleachers in the shade or taking pictures of me.  

I felt like something had run over me

My long run of 8 miles was mentally rough for me this week. My hip has been bothering me on and off all week. I don't like to take pain killers. I need to feel the pain so I know what's going on in my body (I did give in and take some after my long run).  Normally I like to do a mile by mile review of my long run about how I was feeling, my thoughts in general, things I saw along the way but not this run. I honestly only remember thinking that I needed to keep moving and that all I wanted to do was stop and call my husband to come get me.  My hip really started to hurt around mile 5 and I had to force myself to just stare ahead and finish the 8 miles.  I was glad I got the miles in but was disappointed in my pace.  Not every run can be good, right?

I was running towards that smoke.
It's from the Frito Lay factory and it's the most disgusting, greasy, nauseating smell. 

One of the things I started doing the last couple weeks was logging my food. It's made a huge difference in my choices. I used to use the My Fitness Pal app but it really didn't help and I'm not interested in counting calories. Seeing my food choices laid out before me each day is really making me think twice when I go for my comfort foods  I've been able to get and stay under a number I've not been able to break for a long time. I log my workouts, how I'm feeling and any aches and pains I'm experiencing. I have some different pace charts in my binder and bunch of running articles I've saved. I also keep a list of my races and goals in this binder. I know there are all sorts of running journals out there but this allows me to have the control over it that I desire.

All in all, it wasn't an exciting week of running, I had some good runs and not so good and I signed up for 3 local 5k's for the summer and another half marathon in the fall. I feel healthy and that's all I really can ask for. All the rest will fall into place with some good training and lots of glorious miles over the next few months.