Training Lapse

I haven't been keeping to my training plan . . . and I know it's probably the most critical few weeks of the plan.  I've put so much time and energy and heart into the past 3 months, you'd think I could keep the momentum for the last few weeks . . . . yet I have so many excuses.  Chief among them includes very sore muscles and places rubbed raw on my feet.  Perhaps a very light week or two will be beneficial?  I can dream, can't I?

This weekend, I skipped my long run entirely.  To try to make up for it, I expanded my Monday run a bit.  I was scheduled for 3 miles but ran 6 miles in 1:03:30 on the indoor RPAC track.  We had a crazy day of thunderstorms and hail so I really had no choice.  Despite running only 6 miles and having what should have been fresh legs, my run was tough and I was very sore immediately following and throughout the evening.

On Tuesday I didn't have a run planned.  I attended Valerie's first softball game of the season.  She made the Jr. High softball team and was their starting shortstop.  She had a good game overall and made a couple of outs.  Our team lost by something crazy like 14 to 0, though.  The other team had a pitcher a full foot taller than Val and weighed about 150 pounds.  She was firing in pitches only a few girls even connected the bat with the ball.  Val was one of just 2 girls that put the ball in play, but got out at first base.  The game was played despite the weather being 44 degrees with a wind-chill of 36.  At various times, we had ice and slush raining down on us as we sat on aluminum bleachers.  I was freezing.  Although I wore my trail runners so my feet stayed dry, they were very cold and frozen.  Burrrrr.  Her next game is tomorrow and should be in the 60 degree F range.

Today I was scheduled to run 8 miles with 4 miles as speed work.  I struggled through the 8 miles but ignored the speed part.  I just wasn't up for it.  I should have taken a GU with me or ate something on the drive home.  I was totally wiped out.  I also had a sore place on the bottom of my foot that was bugging me from mile 4+.  Really, the only time I felt pretty good was mile 2.  It was a strange run.  My total time for the 8 miles was 1:26:59 with splits all over the place: 10:51, 9:58, 10:51, 11:01, 11:10, 10:50, 11:17, and 10:53.  I walked whenever I felt like it, which was more frequently in the later miles than the early ones.

On a more positive front, work and home life is going quite well.  I had a wonderful visit with my grandmother and parents who visited last week from Nebraska.  I just love having them here.  We visited and planned home improvement projects and Dad and Ken made quite a bit of progress on some of those projects.  We now have trim in the basement.  The kids' shower head is no longer held on by duct tape.  We have a new kitchen faucet.  And the blue tape directing visitors to use the correct doorbell is no longer required.  Although I was off work all week during their visit, I kept up with email and have been very productive so far this week. I suppose the break did me some good, after all.