Not So Easy

Training went pretty badly this week. I keep waiting for everything to fall into place, but things keep disrupting my plans. I desperately need to get on a schedule and stay there, and I need for my runs to start feeling less like disasters. I know this will happen eventually, but I'd really appreciate sooner than later.

Wednesday's track night was the best run of the week for me. Those of us training for the half marathon just did two 800s. The track out at Memorial is 400m, so we basically ran the distance around the track twice, then rested before doing it again. The point was to get a feel for the pace we'd like to be able to maintain for the race.

I ran comfortably at a speed faster than I've managed to keep up in the past. I was actually surprised by how good it felt. Of course, I was totally spent by the end of my second 800, but I felt like I had accomplished something. Overall, it was a total of one mile, but it was a good one.

We had a woman's apparel clinic Thursday evening, so I went straight from work to run. I only had a 20 minute run scheduled, so I planned to get the run out of the way, shower, and head over to Finish Strong for the clinic. I failed to consider what even a 20 minute run would do to me at 5:00 in the afternoon - 98 degrees and sunny is not good running weather.

I could tell right away that the run was going to go badly. I left the apartment complex and headed out on the route that I ran so many times last year. I started struggling immediately, so I decided to take it easy and walk a minute for every 4 minutes I ran. It just felt wrong. I'm fairly convinced it was the weather, but who knows.

The first 2 intervals went ok. Not good, but I made it somehow. When I started running the 3rd time, I knew I'd have to stop. Every breath made me feel more nauseous, and I just couldn't drive through it. I walked the rest of the way home, feeling terribly sick the whole way. It took a good 10 minutes lying on the floor under my fan for the sheets of sweat to stop and the nausea to calm enough that I could start drinking massive amount of water.

Basically, it was bad. I need to find a better time to run - or at least somewhere with more shade. I mean, I'm not in great shape, but I think the majority of my issue was the heat and sun. I wish I could run in the morning. I wouldn't mind getting up earlier, but there's nowhere I feel safe running before the sun's up, and I get to work before sunrise.

On an up note, the clinic was a lot of fun. Nothing like wine and cheese to make you feel better about bouncing around a closed retail store in a sports bra =)

I had very minor oral surgery on Friday (still the remnants of the massive disaster that started over a year and a half ago), but my oral surgeon said that I could attempt the run on Saturday morning if I felt ok and took it easy.

I didn't feel great on Saturday morning, but I didn't want to skip the run. I feel behind as it is, so I needed to put in the distance (3 miles this week). My mouth was a bit swollen and painful, but it's been worse. The run wasn't great. It started out as a run, but became a walk before too long. Yeah, I wanted to run, but I definitely didn't want to do anything to put my health at risk. Sigh. We move up to 4 miles next week, and I still can't run 3.

The route was interesting because we actually left the park. I really liked the neighborhood we ran through, and I was impressed by how many people are out running in Houston on Saturday morning. It's a bit crazy.

One of the other mentors put together a video of the training (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-NQ5FFv6o) - the bit of me shows pretty effectively how I was feeling. And you can definitely see the swelling. Fun times!

Running might not be great (yet!), but I really love mentoring. We have a fantastic group, and I love being able to be so involved. Go Team!