VCM Training: Week 4 (Persevere)
I know it’s still early, but so far this training cycle is not going as well as I had hoped. I feel impatient, and these minor setbacks are really testing me. It’s been hard not to compare this training with last years NYC training, where everything seemed to go swimmingly.
Persevere is the name of the game.
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Slow 12 mile run through the icy/snowy streets of Astoria with Kristin. Great run, left me feeling tired, but satisfied. I didn’t fuel on this run and barely drank any water and it left me with a headache for the whole rest of the day on Sunday. Lesson learned.
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – AM ST workout. Did ‘The Core’ with 3 sets instead of 2 and added in a few additional exercises at the end of each set. PM – Easy 5 mile run 9:22 avg. pace
Wednesday – 2 x 1600 (7:47, 7:46) 5 miles total with w/u and c/d.
Thursday – 60 min Cardio/Strength class
Friday – Rest
Total: A measly 22 miles 
+ 2 ST sessions
I had 3 unexpected days of rest. I had to find the line this past week between listening to your body and being lazy. I’m a little upset that I only ran 22 miles, I missed 2 runs, one due to laziness, the other due to actually needing rest.
Even though I only ran 3 times total, my body was feeling in rough shape on Thursday and Friday. After my speedwork on Wednesday, I felt a small pain in my lower back/butt, similar to what I felt last May, only not nearly as bad as that. It feels like how it felt in the last week before I was fully healed and it’s not constant. I can feel it when I walk around and it’s at it’s worst after I’ve been sitting for a while or when I wake up in the morning. When I got it checked out last year, I was told it was due to poor posture, so I’ve been trying to focus on bettering my posture and stretching a lot. I’m not too worried, but it’s a nagging thing that’s there and it added stress to my weekend, in addition to my taxes.
Remember when taxes used to be easy? You could punch in a few numbers and voila, you get like $600 back! Now, I have to pay taxes, wahhh, I hate being an adult.
Anyway, I slept terribly Thursday into Friday and I woke up with a hurting back. I was planning on running Friday, but in this instance, I felt it was better to rest than to run with an incredibly sore back.
The other run I missed was last weekend, an easy 4 miler that I technically should’ve got in. So, this is how I ended up only running 22 miles. Ugh. I need to get my mileage up and I need to feel strong again. I don’t know why I had such a rough week, especially considering I barely ran, either way, this week is a new week and I’ve already started it off with a great 14 miles.
My glute/lower back thing still hurts a bit every once in a while, but it was completely fine during my 14 miler over the weekend, so that’s good news. I’m going to keep running, unless it starts to bother me while I’m actually running. I’m aiming for 30 miles this week, hopefully I can get there safely and feel like a normal person by the end of the week.
In other news, this is my new neighbor. Good thing I didn’t give up sweets for Lent.
I had the same kind of week. I only logged 22 miles and I missed two runs — both out of laziness. Bleh. I chalked it up to mid-February blues. This week I’m stacking all my runs upfront and splitting some of them in half, so I can get some miles out of the way at lunch. I realize although it’s pretty easy to get out running on weeknights, I’m just not down for 4 or 5 hours of running on the weekends.
Funny enough I have had a hip/butt thing that never hurts when I run, but kind of feels sore after, especially when I am just sitting down at my desk or in the car. I have just focused on stretching it and being alert to see if it hurts when I run…but so far, so good. Funny how that happens, huh?
Be patient! You still have tons of time and things can literally turn around in just one week! And then you can take that momentum and move forward through the rest of training! You will get there!
I had to miss some work outs this week too, due to not properly ‘working in’ a new pair of running shoes (had pain in my first metatarsal just south of my big toe)…thankfully I was able to run yesterday and today (slow miles on the ‘mill) so I am hopeful I can get back on track (training for my first marathon in May!)
~Anna
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