Warning: This isn’t the most positive update in the world; after last week I’m feeling super discouraged about running. As in, what was I thinking that I could ever actually run this far type of discouraged. It was kind of a hard week for me last week and I know everyone says you’re going to have “off” weeks but by the time Saturday’s run was finished, I was kind of a mess. Messier than my living room after my 11-year old opened his birthday presents.

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Week #10’s Workouts

-Monday: supposed to be a 4 mile run but opted for a yoga workout instead at night since the day got away from me before I could get a run in.

-Tuesday: ran 4 miles in the early a.m. – basically ran circles around a nearby neighborhood since there was a lot of lamplight in the pitch dark; maybe it was the repetitiveness of the run but I had to literally talk myself through each step so I didn’t stop; I finally switched my Pandora station to OneDirection and channeled my inner teenager to get through it.

-Wednesday: no workout.

-Thursday: ran 4 miles on the treadmill – it’s been a while since I’ve done a treadmill run and even my silly BBC show on the iPad couldn’t distract me from the fact that I would rather have been shoving hot pokers under my fingernails than continue running.

-Friday: did an early morning interval training workout (had gone to bed late the night before and was super tired when my alarm went off at 5:50 a.m.; I told Brian the only thing that got me out of bed was that he was snoring like a freight train so now that I was awake, I knew I’d either lay there for another hour listening to him and contemplating smothering him with my pillow…or just get my buns out of bed and workout). He said “you’re welcome.” Apparently he thinks that was almost like being a personal trainer.

-Saturday: planned out a route on google maps for a 6 mile run but while actually running found out the road I was supposed to take to circle back around doesn’t actually exist which put me about 2 3/4 miles farther from home than I should have been. Not to mention that google maps neglected to tell me the entire route was up and down hills (my fault for not driving the route but still). There was one point, when I saw another rolling hill in front of me, that I actually wondered if I sat down by the side of the road and didn’t move ever again, would anyone find me? By 6 1/2 miles, I was almost in tears and was supposed to be back home already for my 11-year old’s birthday breakfast (I had set off pretty early so we could get on with a day of three soccer games, birthday celebrations, Easter activities, and church obligations). Despite wanting to get all the way home on my own, I had to call Brian to come get me. I literally didn’t have it in me to even walk the last 2+ miles home after I had been running for over an hour. In my not-so-finest moments during that run I almost wished my aching hip flexors and hamstring were harsh injuries that would require a doctor to order me to never run a day again ever. Don’t hate me for thinking that (especially if you actually have an injury) but I promised to be honest and so there you go.

This is me. Taking a sockie selfie (Brian made all sorts of fun of me) while Jackson opened birthday presents minutes after I got back from running. I could barely move and was trying to stretch but couldn’t bend at the waist yet.
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So yeah, sorry to be a downer. I think because time seemed to slip through my fingers last week + the fact that all three of my runs were straight up brutal kind of threw me. I tend to overthink things anyway and combine that with just an emotional week – it wasn’t a great combination. Brian gave me a pep talk on Saturday about focusing on how far I’ve come over the last ten weeks (going from not even running a mile without stopping to 6 1/2 miles) instead of thinking about what’s not feeling perfect. I get it. I do. But it was still kind of a rotten week and I really am not sure I can run more than I’m already running (6 1/2 miles kind of did me in). Not only did it make last week kind of pitiful but it’s made me go into this week of running with an already negative attitude.

This Week

-5 mile run Monday (today) – hoping to get that in tonight since my morning was a little hectic
-Cross-training workout Tuesday
-4 mile run Wednesday
-Cross-training or yoga workout Thursday
-Rest day Friday
-10K local road race on Saturday (although realized that our family schedule that day may prevent me from running it since it starts later than I thought, so we’ll see; still planning on it otherwise I’ll do a 6 mile run in the early a.m. before the craziness of the day starts)

Hopefully your running week was WAY better!