Hardest Week of Training? Let's Get Sick!

After Sunday's long run that was a fair bit faster than planned, I was hobbling a bit with an ache in my left leg that only comes with walking slow. Of course I started freaking out about this and began thinking about having an extended taper period.

But I know what I always end up doing, I try to do every run to test how much goes away once I warm up.

Monday: Recovery run, 6 miles. I ran this real easy and slowed down any time I felt any tightness or ache. No reason for time concerns today.

Also my kiddo has been sick since Sunday, so I've been getting mentally prepared for catching what she has... and I did.

Tuesday: Hanson plan called for a strength run of 4 x 1.5 miles at marathon pace minute 10 seconds. Now I've been aiming to do that at 6:53, as that is based off a BQ time. In reality, I'll be running at 7:12 or so, so I would only need to be doing like 7:02ish if I was being realistic.

I woke up a fair amount over night every time my kid started coughing.  As a parent, you are very alert to the sounds of your child. I would wake up and wait to see if she was just coughing and going back to sleep, or if I was needed to comfort her. Also, the cat was being very annoying scratching on paneling the last couple hours of my sleep...

Finally 3:40am. I was real tired and as soon as I came to my senses, I realized I was sick. I knew that nobody would think less of me if I slept and rested. I remembered though what the Hanson Book says, try to at least get in a few miles if you can to keep your legs. And I figured, I'll just be feeling worse after today, so let's just try it. I imagine I'll miss 1-2 days or have to just do easy runs until I'm recovered.

Get outside at about 4:15am, a little brisk. I also am sporting my last pair of kicks for the training season and they'll take me into the Chicago Marathon:

As I warmed up, I tried to get a feel for what the hurdles would be. Wind out of the SE, that's going to suck. My wind felt off, no surprise considering the cold. Energy felt like it was draining faster than normal, not that much of a big deal. Okay, lets try the run. Rather than force the issue for pace, I put in the effort that was safe for today. My pace for the 1.5 mile intervals ranged between 6:45 - 7:15. I was okay with it, just glad I didn't quit.  My stomach started going sour around mile 3. Stopped at Belmont to help take the pressure off.

The return run felt easier with the wind out of my face, but my energy started dipping off and on and my stomach just wasn't happy. I managed to get one last good half mile in at full speed, then settle again.

Overall, I am glad I got through it. I'll probably need to make some adjustments over the next 3 days to either rest/shorter miles/or just easy miles, until I feel like I'm on the upswing. Otherwise, I'll end up in the...

And just because:

Hammer and Sickle

Two days, two entirely different sets of legs.

Yesterday I was cut down. Hanson Marathon Method had an easy 8 on tap. I decided to sleep and go running with the jogging stroller after the kid had breakfast.

Get out, first block felt like hell. My left calf was a wreck. I was very close to turning around and going back. But I told myself two things:

1. Wife earned the silent house time.
2. Give the legs some time to warm up before calling a DNF.

Thankfully #2 proved right. Mentally it did it's damage though. Another run with a different pain to work through.

My kiddo provided some mental escape for me. At stretch time, she was hollering out what everything was, running! Bikes! Cars! Stretchies! Then I would watch how she played with her toys and propped her feet on the visor at face level.

Didn't use GPS. Wanted to not push the pace. I felt like I was going at a fresh pace.  On my return trip one middle aged guy holler at me as I passed him - Hey! It isn't nice to run by people while pushing a stroller (he said this jokingly). I responded - the longer I take, the higher the chances my kid throws a fit! And I zoomed off. My end pace averaged out to be an 8 minute mile. A fair bit faster than I had planned, especially dragging along the kid.


I saw a few runners that I usually see at the dark running hours, which was nice.  Also, Bethany @ Accidental Intentions mentioned she saw me, sadly I missed the exchange!

The rest of the day my legs felt pretty decent. I really wanted a good run on Tuesday for my strength run, so I took a couple ibuprofen before bed.  I went to bed at 9:45pm, as my alarm was set for 3:40am.

Although going to bed and falling asleep aren't the same thing.  Sleeping like a normal person for a week meant my body wasn't too tired.  Around 10:45pm, my daughter starts crying/screaming. Pretty rare for her as she is a good sleeper at night and soothes herself pretty quickly.  Not tonight. After multiple trips to try to calm her down, and them try to calm down to fall asleep, I maybe got over a little over 4 hours of sleep.

I was partly tempted to switch my run to an easy short run that was on the plan for tomorrow... but whatever, lets do this right.

I get out at about 4:20am.  My legs feel the best the have since Friday morning. Awesome!

There is a light briskness to the air. The stars are gorgeous. All I could see as I got to the lakefront was the white edges of the waves. It was a perfect morning. When I stopped to stretch, I just gazed at the sky and relaxed.

Today's plan - 3 x 2 mile intervals at 10 seconds faster than marathon pace, with 800m jogs in between. I tried to use the jog time to take pictures. So here are the photos:

My two mile split times should be about 13:45ish, maybe 13:48 per plan.

They went like this : 13:38, 13:39, 13:40.  A little bit faster than scheduled, but it was a good confidence booster.  Now lets hope I can maintain some healthy legs for more than 24 hours!

The rest of the details, 2.4 mile warm up. Ran with Erin for some of the warm up, did the splits, then 2. something cool down.

I tried my first selfie this morning as I matched my outfit so well!

For those that like rap, here is a shirt for us:

Have a great day everyone! I hope you aren't wearing white!