A Good Week

Week 6 of training went much, much better than Week 5, largely because I actually ran this time.

Ran on a treadmill on Tuesday for the first time. I was underwhelmed by the experience. It was my first run since being out sick for a week, and I guess it was a good way to ease back into running. It was just boring. I think I've been running outside for so long that I have to feel like I'm getting somewhere, or I just go nuts. However, I was able to run at a slightly faster pace on the treadmill than I usually can outside, so it might not be a bad tool to use for speed intervals occasionally.

Thursday called for four miles, which were completed outside. This run was a fairly good one. I was nervous about it since I'm still not at the point where four miles, or even two miles, comes easily. But I did pretty well and felt really good afterward. I had to insert some walking breaks into the last half, but I'm slowly becoming okay with that. I have to do what I have to do, and who is grading me??

Sunday was my long run. Seven miles baby!! I felt like such a badass. Seven miles is a REAL distance that REAL runners run!!! It was hard, of course, but ironically the shorter runs actually seem harder for me. My time wasn't half bad, for me. I averaged about 14:20 a mile, which included water breaks and a couple walking intervals. This was also a very hilly run. I felt strong and powerful for most of it. The last mile and a half I started to get very woozy and dizzy, but I got through it.

The only bad part of training this week was that on both Thursday and Sunday, I got a very bad headache after I ran, which lasted most of the rest of those days. I think that they were perhaps dehydration headaches, and that maybe its time to consider fueling more. I usually stick to water to rehydrate because that has always worked for me in the past. However, it may be time for sports drinks to enter into the equation. Also, on Sunday I ran in the morning before breakfast. I hate running with food on my stomach, but it probably wasn't the best idea to run for almost 2 hours with no fuel. I need to find something to fuel my runs that doesn't lay heavy on my stomach. Any suggestions would be welcomed!

I'm working on my attitude. I'm tired of being a negative Nancy. I'm never going to be the fastest runner in the world, and that's fine. I need to get in touch with my star player, which my best friend helped me to realize in this post of her blog. I also realized that everybody has issues with their own performance, no matter how great they are. Beth from Shut Up and Run talks about that here. These two blog entries gave me a lot to chew on this week.

A lot of this is about attitude, and mine has really sucked for most of this journey. Negativity is a defense mechanism of mine because if I say how much I sucked before anyone else does, then NOBODY ELSE can criticize me or hurt my feelings. Putting yourself out there and saying how great you think you did is a risk. There's always somebody who could tell you "um no, not really. You should be going faster/farther/more often, etc." And of course that would crush me. Okay, I have issues. I'm going to work on them.

I love running because it teaches me so much about me that I never knew before! Nothing will pull layers of false bravado off of a person and make them get real like a good long hard run, that is for sure.

Have a great week, everyone!