Catching up...

So, what happens when I miss a week of blogging is that I just keep putting it off because writing the entry has become a bigger and bigger task. I am now 2 weeks behind, and I really need to just get caught up.

Actually, there's not that much to write about from 2 weeks ago. I got sick, and I really didn't run during the week except on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I got stubborn and decided that I wasn't going to let a little cold keep me from my workout. I started with a half hour leg workout with my trainer, which hurt a predictable amount (and continued to hurt for the rest of the week =)), and then I ran the loop at Memorial with my running buddy. Neither of us was feeling well, so it wasn't a great run, and we walked at least half of it, but we got out there and did it. I felt great when I got home, but I felt truly awful when I woke up Wednesday morning.

The run that Saturday went surprisingly well for me considering that I had skipped most of the weekly workouts. We did 5 miles, the same route as the week before. It was probably the best run I've had, ever, and I shaved about 2 minutes off my mile time (it still took about an hour and five minutes, but that's practically FAST for me =)). I really missed running with my running partner (poor girl was really sick), but I ended up running a good chunk of the mileage with one of the other girls, and she was great company, too =)

Last week was pretty uneventful. Monday I did the standard treadmill run followed by Pilates, and I felt awesome afterwards. I actually felt like I could have easily run more than the required 20 minutes on the treadmill. Why is it so much easier to run on the treadmill? It makes me feel like it's not a good workout.

Tuesday, it was raining and ugly all day, so we decided to skip our park run. I still worked out with my trainer, though, and my whole body felt it the next day. She is GOOD.

Wednesday was track night, which meant the first ladder of the season. The workout for those of us doing the half was 200, 400, 600, 600, 400, 200 (yards, if you remain blissfully unaware of track workouts), with walking breaks in between. I managed to get through it, though I was definitely slower at the end than the beginning. As we were without a coach (again, sickness, bah!), I led the group through a short (and probably funny-looking) set of form drills. Yes, I know I'm not the best person to demonsrate FORM drills, but I was nominated =)

I skipped Thursday's run in order to go to a cocktails/culture "crawl" thing at the Pavilions downtown. The space is neat, and I maintain that cocktails, yummy food, multiple musical performances, and good company totally counts as my workout =)

Saturday's run was pretty ugly. The route was a loop at the park followed by a loop through the nearby neighborhood. The start/end point also served as the midway point, which was kinda evil, really. I didn't have anyone to run with this week, so I set out for 6 miles on my own.

3/4 of the way through the Memorial loop, I hit a wall, hard. I ended up walking the rest of the way around the loop, popping energy chews near the end because I was starting to feel sick (I usually wait for the water stop to fuel, since it's best to fuel with water). I still made it to the picnic tables at 40 minutes in, meaning that I started out way too fast (considering I walked about 8 minutes, I must have been over a minute or two under my best pace). I basically just burnt myself out with no one around to help regulate my pace.

The second 3 miles was very slow. I did a bit of it with one of our coaches and the last half of it with one of the other girls. It was pretty painful, but I learned a valuable lesson about speed. I also need to find something I can eat an hour before a run without making myself sick, because not eating before long runs isn't going to fly anymore.

So, it was bad, but I've definitely had worse runs. It's really weird how you can have such a good long run followed by such a bad one. My body is a fickle thing.

This week I'm in Morris for work again, and it is cold. I missed today's run because I forgot to take my shoes to work (bad excuse, I know). The plan had been to run in the park across from the plant, then get groceries and run some errands I don't have time to do back home. When I left work, it was dark and windy and cold, and I never feel quite right up here anyway, so I decided to just run my errands and rest. It's only 20 minutes, and I seem to need the rest.I hate skipping runs, but I'll make up for it.