Saddle Blazer Half Marathon Training Day 5-12

The holidays were an important lesson for me.  In terms of planning and my own limits, I learned a lot about how to prioritize.  There are also some mistakes I should be wary of making the next time around.  Let's break this down day by day to see what I did (and didn't do).

Day 5 (Christmas Eve) - This was a scheduled rest day, but I knew that I wouldn't get any work in on Christmas day itself, so I decided to attempt some form of training.  My major mistake on this day was putting off my run until later in the day. I lounged about the house and watched football.  My beloved Chiefs did not disappoint against Miami, but I was a little disappointed in myself.  I ate a lunch that seemed enormous.  I may have fudged a little on my portions in order to eat up some food that was going to be thrown away otherwise.  When the time came to hop in the car and drive to the gym, I was just not feeling it. I decided to use the gym's treadmill because I figured I could just go pick up my husband from work right after and besides, it was too "cold" to run outside.  Had I known the frigid conditions I was soon to face, I probably would have nutted up and just ran outside. 

The big lunch made itself known despite being 5 hours in the past less than a quarter mile in.  I got a wicked stitch in my side.  I tried to run through it, but the pain continued to increase.  I dug my fingers into my side and tried to massage it away.  No dice.  I decided I would just keep on trucking and work on my pain tolerance.  That decisions lasted all of one minute before I crapped out.  Defeated, I walked over the exercise bike, determined to work on my fitness in some way.  The 25 minutes on the bike were fine and filled the time I had schedule for the three hour run. 

Day 6 (Christmas) - I made this a rest day and rest I did. My husband and I flew into Kansas City with no issues aside from the miserable bitter cold were confronted with upon exiting the airport. I had a great time with the folks and ate moderately and according to my food plan. 

Day 7 (12/26/2017)-  I somehow thought that I was going to wake up and be able to run today. Therefore, I did not ask my brother's permission to borrow his car to take to gym.  I woke up and saw that it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit.  Well shit.  Living in Texas has stripped all the winter readiness that I had accrued from growing up in the Midwest and living in Siberia.  9 degrees is hell on earth and I had neither the gear nor the will to attempt to confront it.  Nor did I have a way of getting to the gym.  But the show must go on.  

I found this thing by googling "at home workout"

Then I went down into the basement and got to work.  This was my first experience with burpees.  Good God in heaven... It was quite the miserable experience, which is likely an indicator that I should be doing more burpees.  I stopped at the "Push ups - 20"  because it was time to start getting ready to go to lunch.  I was also pretty tired and likely would have quit anyway. 

Day 8 (12/27/2017): This time I wised up and asked my brother in advance if I could use his car.  I cruised on down to the Y and paid my 15 bucks for a day pass.   My strava tracker has done poorly in the past on small indoor tracks, so I decided to run for time.  I ran for 35 minutes, felt great and ran literal circles around a girl I used to go to high school with.  There were a lot of turns on the indoor track which made me a little dizzy, but it wasn't a huge issue.

Since I paid good money to be at the Y, I decided to make the most of it and I did Strong Curves "Bootyful Beginings" Day B.  I thought about writing out exactly my sets, reps, and weight, but I'm really not sure about copyright issues and posting the whole workout.  I doubt its a big deal, but for now I won't since I got the program from a book rather than a free website.  The step ups were unpleasant but I got through them.  I completed the workout which was encouraging, but I was starving there towards the end. 

Day 9 (12/28/2017) Scheduled Rest Day

Day 10 (12/29/2017)  I was supposed to run seven miles.  That did not end up happening.  In fact, no more training happened until I got back to Austin, unfortunately.  Not running the seven was largely due to poor planning and me just being plain not willing to make the necessary sacrifices.  The temperatures stayed frigid.  I was now staying at my mother's place and there was no gym with an indoor track near by.  Nor was there an option to borrow a car.  My mother was willing to drive me to the gym so I could run my seven on a treadmill.  I did not want to do this, so I just let inertia keep me from the gym. 

If I could do it again,  I would have either brought more intense cold weather running gear, AND rearranged my schedule so I could do my long run earlier in the week at the Y on the indoor track and a shorter run in the park near my mother's house.  I also would not have allowed this "giving up" to derail the rest of my training.  

Day 11 (12/30/2017) I was supposed to do 60 minutes of cross training.  There was time to do this after getting dropped back off at my Dad's house.  It just for some reason never crossed my mind to do it.  My eyes had left the prize.  I was not in training mode.  I am a little embarrassed about it.  I could easily have gone into the basement and done the routine posted above or used the exercise bands that I forgot I brought with me until I unpacked them this morning. 

Day 12 (12/31/2017) Scheduled Rest Day, that I spent driving back to Austin in a pretty cool rental Jeep Compass. Word to the wise for any midwesterners driving South for the holidays. Once you get south of Dallas,  if a single snowflake is sighted, people will turn on their hazard lights and start driving 40 on the Interstate.  Be on the watch for ridiculous panicked behavior.

Overall, I needed to plan better,  be realistic about my limits, and equip myself for the cold.  Good lessons to learn.  I will cover today (1/1/2018) in a separate post.