This is going to sound odd, but I listened to a podcast solely for entertainment and find it to be really helpful for thinking about goals and reaching those goals. I love Conan O’Brien, but I love Adam Sandler even more. So I listened to Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend with Adam Sandler and in the first part he talks about how he had all this confidence because he just didn't know better. It was just really interesting to hear his approach to his career and view of himself. And then the rest of the interview of was just super funny.
Monday:
Since I had the day off at the community college I was able to sleep in a bit before heading out for my run. Which was good for many reasons. For one thing, I am sleeping like shit so I am exhausted. Also, when I wake up for the millionth time I am starving hungry. I also have a sore throat so I eat some food and have some tea with honey. I really can’t afford to get sick right now. It’s not a good time training wise so this needs to go away fast. And even though I know what the studies say about vitamin C if you are already sick (in a nutshell, too late) I am doing all the vitamin C I can find.
I don't normally eat before a run if I am running first thing, Usually just a cup of coffee and then I am out the door. But I woke up hungry so I had a granola bar with my coffee. I was afraid if I didn't I would never make I through 15 miles.
Trying to take it easy today to let my legs have another day to recover. Here’s a tip, if you get lost in a neighborhood it is easy to get all your miles done. I mixed it up with some easy hills in a neighborhood on road and some trail. I got totally lost trying to find the pedestrian bridge over the 51 into Dreamy Draw, but that worked in my favor.
I head to the kindergarten to find I have 2 students and the Jewish studies teacher is running late. So I spend half an hour waiting on her and the other hour and a half playing Lego’s and watching the clock tick in an excruciatingly slow manner.
I meet Hayley at Echo coffee shop after work so we can catch up and talk about my racing and training schedule. She’s a good person to bounce ideas of off. I ate a brownie that I really should not have eaten, but again, starving.
I left Hayley and went to yoga. When I got home at 7:30 Norm was asleep, 2 kids were gone and 2 were doing whatever they do. Pasta waited patiently for me to eat dinner and answer emails so we could go to bed. I had two huge plates of food and then a third smaller plate so I wouldn’t wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
Tuesday:
Why am I not sleeping well? Like I am awake several times a night. It’s really getting on my nerves. Despite not sleeping well, I am awake at 5:30am. I toss and turn and get up at 6am. I have coffee and a granola bar and hope that it won’t be a problem during a speed work.
What I really should have been worried about was the wind. Why is it always gale force winds on speed work days? So annoying. I purposely run into the wind as much as possible for my warm up to avoid it on the speed part as much as possible. I did a 3 mile warm up and then half a mile at about 6:20 to 6:30 pace with a half mile easy (meaning around 8 min pace or better). I was happy so happy to finish that last speed work half mile into the wind. I very much enjoyed my 3 mile cool down.
I have been trying to get weights back into the rotation, but time is hard to find. I have been getting it in about once a week. I really want to get it done twice a week. I took a little time to get some work done and start some laundry before a 35 minute weight session. I should have worked a little harder. Next time.
Went to yoga after work. Driving there I listened to a podcast with David Goggins. The interviewer read the first sentence from his book and I was hooked. So yoga class is just going along and all of the sudden the instructor asks if any one know who David Goggins is and I was a little bit overly excited to announce to everyone that I did. She later told me she almost finished it one night. I am going to add it to the stack of books that I never have time to read. You should definitely recommend it.
My youngest is really sick. I tried to get a doctor’s appointment but because we haven't been there in a few years it would be considered a new patient and they wont see him until next week. Never mind that he says he can’t breath very well. So I grab a fast bite at home and we head to Phoenix’s Children’s urgent care. Speaking of sick, I feel like whatever I have is moving into my chest and I am starting to feel a bit panicky.
Wednesday:
Yep, definitely sick. Now the goal is to try to keep this from becoming the plague that my child currently has. A head cold is one thing, but if this moves into my chest then training becomes really difficult. Luckily it was an easy day and so I took it very easy. I stayed mostly on roads. When I get sick I always feel like I don't trust myself on trails. I don't know why. Maybe my balance is off or maybe I am kinda dragging my feet because I don't feel good. Whatever the reason, I always feel like a bad fall is imminent when I am sick so I avoid the trails. I did run hilly roads because I wanted to get some climbing in. I was almost finished and running through what I consider a pretty nice neighborhood when I encountered an older lady out getting her mail. As I passed she said, “you’re brave.” I just chuckled, but I was confused. What did she mean? I was brave to run? I was brave to run in her neighborhood? It’s a decent neighborhood. Did she think my shorts were too short for a woman my age and was passing judgment? I guess I’ll never know. I mean I could knock on her door and ask, but that seems weird. It’s weird, right?
No yoga today because I tutor on Wednesday afternoons. I can’t say names for privacy reasons, but this kid is one of my most favorite students ever and I love working with him. It’s always a lot of fun.
I got home and made enchiladas. I also informed my family that this was the last meal I would be preparing until after Black Canyon. I am just going to buy a bunch of food and people can make what they want. I am officially in the business of training and resting and that is pretty much it. I even told my college class this morning to not expect a lot of me for the next 3 weeks. Luckily, they were very understanding and excited to talk about my racing and training. A lot of my class revolves around ultra running, movies, podcasts, articles, so they learn a lot about ultra running.
Norm is registered for the 88K at Whiskey Basin and despite me giving him a very simple and easy plan he is not running at all. I fear his performance is going to reflect poorly on me.
I ate dinner, took cold medicine and went to bed.
Thursday:
I love cold medicine! Not really, it makes me feel like shit but I slept like a log! At 7am I was still sleeping and Norm came in to ask how I felt. I am thinking in my head, did this asshole just come in here and wake me up to ask me how I am feeling? But he followed up with I am about to do dishes and make some noise. I sleep in a room that is off the kitchen so he was trying to be nice. He also makes the most noise of anyone I have ever met when he is washing dishes. Even when I am not sleeping I have to move far away because the noise makes my nervous system hurt. He also breaks the most dishes of anyone washing dishes that I have ever known. I feel like there is a correlation here.
I texted Charlie to discus my plan to keep my running volume the same while reducing intensity while I fight this cold, but he didn't respond before I finished my coffee so I set out on 13 very easy miles on the canal. I came to home to see that Charlie thinks I should rest for the duration of the week. Yeah, I don't think so buddy. I was going to skip yoga, but I started feeling really guilty about it. I am feeling better this afternoon. A little tired, but not as sick symptom wise. I know there is a balance between knowing when to keep training and knowing when to rest and I am not ready to rest yet. But I will take it easy at yoga. Probably.
Friday:
I went for a short 6 mile run on the trails to test out some shoes. I had a pair of Salomon S labs to try out. Just picking them up I was shocked by how light they were. They are definitely a trail racing flat. It reminded me of putting on racing flats back when I ran roads all the time. The pair I had were too big so I put on a pair of Norm’s super thick socks and it worked okay, but I need to try a smaller size.
I felt okay on my run but not great. I was feeling a little tired after, but needed to get grocery shopping done. I did my Costco and Target run and got home in time to eat lunch and change clothes for work.
I thought I might get a second run done, but decided to listen to my body and not run. I struggle with I need to be training because Black Canyon is so close and I need to rest because Black Canyon is so close.
I only have 4 more months of teaching. Norm and I had a discussion about what to do when this school year is over. I tell Norm that over the last couple months while I have made running the priority I have been happier than I have been in a long time. Norm says that we need make sure that I can continue to make running the priority. The problem with that is we are struggling financially and that can't continue or soon we will be homeless. It wasn’t intentional to work a few hours a day, it was just how it worked out. While it’s great for my running, it is not great for my bank account. We talked about my options for next school year. I am still not sure what I am going to do. It's a conversation i have probably related in this blog a million times.
Monday:
Since I had the day off at the community college I was able to sleep in a bit before heading out for my run. Which was good for many reasons. For one thing, I am sleeping like shit so I am exhausted. Also, when I wake up for the millionth time I am starving hungry. I also have a sore throat so I eat some food and have some tea with honey. I really can’t afford to get sick right now. It’s not a good time training wise so this needs to go away fast. And even though I know what the studies say about vitamin C if you are already sick (in a nutshell, too late) I am doing all the vitamin C I can find.
I don't normally eat before a run if I am running first thing, Usually just a cup of coffee and then I am out the door. But I woke up hungry so I had a granola bar with my coffee. I was afraid if I didn't I would never make I through 15 miles.
Trying to take it easy today to let my legs have another day to recover. Here’s a tip, if you get lost in a neighborhood it is easy to get all your miles done. I mixed it up with some easy hills in a neighborhood on road and some trail. I got totally lost trying to find the pedestrian bridge over the 51 into Dreamy Draw, but that worked in my favor.
I head to the kindergarten to find I have 2 students and the Jewish studies teacher is running late. So I spend half an hour waiting on her and the other hour and a half playing Lego’s and watching the clock tick in an excruciatingly slow manner.
I meet Hayley at Echo coffee shop after work so we can catch up and talk about my racing and training schedule. She’s a good person to bounce ideas of off. I ate a brownie that I really should not have eaten, but again, starving.
I left Hayley and went to yoga. When I got home at 7:30 Norm was asleep, 2 kids were gone and 2 were doing whatever they do. Pasta waited patiently for me to eat dinner and answer emails so we could go to bed. I had two huge plates of food and then a third smaller plate so I wouldn’t wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
Tuesday:
Why am I not sleeping well? Like I am awake several times a night. It’s really getting on my nerves. Despite not sleeping well, I am awake at 5:30am. I toss and turn and get up at 6am. I have coffee and a granola bar and hope that it won’t be a problem during a speed work.
What I really should have been worried about was the wind. Why is it always gale force winds on speed work days? So annoying. I purposely run into the wind as much as possible for my warm up to avoid it on the speed part as much as possible. I did a 3 mile warm up and then half a mile at about 6:20 to 6:30 pace with a half mile easy (meaning around 8 min pace or better). I was happy so happy to finish that last speed work half mile into the wind. I very much enjoyed my 3 mile cool down.
I have been trying to get weights back into the rotation, but time is hard to find. I have been getting it in about once a week. I really want to get it done twice a week. I took a little time to get some work done and start some laundry before a 35 minute weight session. I should have worked a little harder. Next time.
Went to yoga after work. Driving there I listened to a podcast with David Goggins. The interviewer read the first sentence from his book and I was hooked. So yoga class is just going along and all of the sudden the instructor asks if any one know who David Goggins is and I was a little bit overly excited to announce to everyone that I did. She later told me she almost finished it one night. I am going to add it to the stack of books that I never have time to read. You should definitely recommend it.
My youngest is really sick. I tried to get a doctor’s appointment but because we haven't been there in a few years it would be considered a new patient and they wont see him until next week. Never mind that he says he can’t breath very well. So I grab a fast bite at home and we head to Phoenix’s Children’s urgent care. Speaking of sick, I feel like whatever I have is moving into my chest and I am starting to feel a bit panicky.
Wednesday:
Yep, definitely sick. Now the goal is to try to keep this from becoming the plague that my child currently has. A head cold is one thing, but if this moves into my chest then training becomes really difficult. Luckily it was an easy day and so I took it very easy. I stayed mostly on roads. When I get sick I always feel like I don't trust myself on trails. I don't know why. Maybe my balance is off or maybe I am kinda dragging my feet because I don't feel good. Whatever the reason, I always feel like a bad fall is imminent when I am sick so I avoid the trails. I did run hilly roads because I wanted to get some climbing in. I was almost finished and running through what I consider a pretty nice neighborhood when I encountered an older lady out getting her mail. As I passed she said, “you’re brave.” I just chuckled, but I was confused. What did she mean? I was brave to run? I was brave to run in her neighborhood? It’s a decent neighborhood. Did she think my shorts were too short for a woman my age and was passing judgment? I guess I’ll never know. I mean I could knock on her door and ask, but that seems weird. It’s weird, right?
No yoga today because I tutor on Wednesday afternoons. I can’t say names for privacy reasons, but this kid is one of my most favorite students ever and I love working with him. It’s always a lot of fun.
I got home and made enchiladas. I also informed my family that this was the last meal I would be preparing until after Black Canyon. I am just going to buy a bunch of food and people can make what they want. I am officially in the business of training and resting and that is pretty much it. I even told my college class this morning to not expect a lot of me for the next 3 weeks. Luckily, they were very understanding and excited to talk about my racing and training. A lot of my class revolves around ultra running, movies, podcasts, articles, so they learn a lot about ultra running.
Norm is registered for the 88K at Whiskey Basin and despite me giving him a very simple and easy plan he is not running at all. I fear his performance is going to reflect poorly on me.
I ate dinner, took cold medicine and went to bed.
Thursday:
I love cold medicine! Not really, it makes me feel like shit but I slept like a log! At 7am I was still sleeping and Norm came in to ask how I felt. I am thinking in my head, did this asshole just come in here and wake me up to ask me how I am feeling? But he followed up with I am about to do dishes and make some noise. I sleep in a room that is off the kitchen so he was trying to be nice. He also makes the most noise of anyone I have ever met when he is washing dishes. Even when I am not sleeping I have to move far away because the noise makes my nervous system hurt. He also breaks the most dishes of anyone washing dishes that I have ever known. I feel like there is a correlation here.
I texted Charlie to discus my plan to keep my running volume the same while reducing intensity while I fight this cold, but he didn't respond before I finished my coffee so I set out on 13 very easy miles on the canal. I came to home to see that Charlie thinks I should rest for the duration of the week. Yeah, I don't think so buddy. I was going to skip yoga, but I started feeling really guilty about it. I am feeling better this afternoon. A little tired, but not as sick symptom wise. I know there is a balance between knowing when to keep training and knowing when to rest and I am not ready to rest yet. But I will take it easy at yoga. Probably.
Friday:
I went for a short 6 mile run on the trails to test out some shoes. I had a pair of Salomon S labs to try out. Just picking them up I was shocked by how light they were. They are definitely a trail racing flat. It reminded me of putting on racing flats back when I ran roads all the time. The pair I had were too big so I put on a pair of Norm’s super thick socks and it worked okay, but I need to try a smaller size.
I felt okay on my run but not great. I was feeling a little tired after, but needed to get grocery shopping done. I did my Costco and Target run and got home in time to eat lunch and change clothes for work.
I thought I might get a second run done, but decided to listen to my body and not run. I struggle with I need to be training because Black Canyon is so close and I need to rest because Black Canyon is so close.
I only have 4 more months of teaching. Norm and I had a discussion about what to do when this school year is over. I tell Norm that over the last couple months while I have made running the priority I have been happier than I have been in a long time. Norm says that we need make sure that I can continue to make running the priority. The problem with that is we are struggling financially and that can't continue or soon we will be homeless. It wasn’t intentional to work a few hours a day, it was just how it worked out. While it’s great for my running, it is not great for my bank account. We talked about my options for next school year. I am still not sure what I am going to do. It's a conversation i have probably related in this blog a million times.
Testing out the Salomon S Lab. If you want a trail racing flat - they are pretty amazing.
Saturday:
I had really wanted to run a marathon today, but thank G-d that didn't;t work out financially because there is no way I could run a marathon today and be happy. The goal was tp try to run a sub 3 marathon and see where I am at fitness wise. That will have to wait until after Black Canyon.
So instead the plan was to run 30 miles in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. I was awake in the middle of the night with a coughing fit and then had some trouble falling back asleep. But I still got 10 hours of sleep. That’s 3 nights in a row. When I finally got up I had coffee and then headed out with Norm for a short run.
Norm signed up for Whiskey Basin 88K so he really needs to start training. I mean that’s just my opinion. We were going to run 6 miles, but made it 5.5 miles before Norm started to have knee pain and we had to walk home. If he doesn't stretch he gets terrible IT band problems, but he won’t stretch so he ends up with terrible knee problems.
Again, I thought I might run in the afternoon. I did a little work, ate lunch and took a nap. Even after I woke up I just felt tired. I lay around for a bit. I decided to skip the afternoon run. Maybe if I rest today I can still get a long run done tomorrow? I am at 62 miles for the week right now, which isn't terrible. Not near my goal, but not terrible. So I skip running and just work on lessons plans for next week.
I had really wanted to run a marathon today, but thank G-d that didn't;t work out financially because there is no way I could run a marathon today and be happy. The goal was tp try to run a sub 3 marathon and see where I am at fitness wise. That will have to wait until after Black Canyon.
So instead the plan was to run 30 miles in the morning and 10 in the afternoon. I was awake in the middle of the night with a coughing fit and then had some trouble falling back asleep. But I still got 10 hours of sleep. That’s 3 nights in a row. When I finally got up I had coffee and then headed out with Norm for a short run.
Norm signed up for Whiskey Basin 88K so he really needs to start training. I mean that’s just my opinion. We were going to run 6 miles, but made it 5.5 miles before Norm started to have knee pain and we had to walk home. If he doesn't stretch he gets terrible IT band problems, but he won’t stretch so he ends up with terrible knee problems.
Again, I thought I might run in the afternoon. I did a little work, ate lunch and took a nap. Even after I woke up I just felt tired. I lay around for a bit. I decided to skip the afternoon run. Maybe if I rest today I can still get a long run done tomorrow? I am at 62 miles for the week right now, which isn't terrible. Not near my goal, but not terrible. So I skip running and just work on lessons plans for next week.
Napping with my best friend Pasta.
Sunday:
Slept in again. I am going to miss this! It’s the birthday of my favorite yoga instructor, harmony (she likes it spelled with a lower case h). I took Brandi with me today. We had bought a gift for harmony the night before (a light up unicorn journal).
Class was packed! We are guessing around 70 people. We kept scooting to make room for more people. It was basically a mat to mat situation. But it was an amazing class! I know this sounds like a very “yoga person” thing to say, but the energy in that room was amazing. You could just feel how happy everyone was and the positive vibes of the room were amazing. It felt like everyone was working hard, but also really having a good time. I wish every class were like that.
Brandi use to go to yoga with me all the time, back when I could afford 2 memberships. After class she said, “I know I keep saying that I miss yoga, but now that I went I really miss yoga. I feel so much happier.” I totally get it. So now I am on a mission to figure out how to get her back in class. I mean, I like potatoes.
I felt really good in class and after. I was thinking I could definitely run this afternoon. But by about 1pm I was starting to feel tired and like I needed a nap. I know the going thought is when you think you are recovered, wait one more day. So I will wait one more day. But I am not happy about it. Except, I am kinda happy to take a nap.
Slept in again. I am going to miss this! It’s the birthday of my favorite yoga instructor, harmony (she likes it spelled with a lower case h). I took Brandi with me today. We had bought a gift for harmony the night before (a light up unicorn journal).
Class was packed! We are guessing around 70 people. We kept scooting to make room for more people. It was basically a mat to mat situation. But it was an amazing class! I know this sounds like a very “yoga person” thing to say, but the energy in that room was amazing. You could just feel how happy everyone was and the positive vibes of the room were amazing. It felt like everyone was working hard, but also really having a good time. I wish every class were like that.
Brandi use to go to yoga with me all the time, back when I could afford 2 memberships. After class she said, “I know I keep saying that I miss yoga, but now that I went I really miss yoga. I feel so much happier.” I totally get it. So now I am on a mission to figure out how to get her back in class. I mean, I like potatoes.
I felt really good in class and after. I was thinking I could definitely run this afternoon. But by about 1pm I was starting to feel tired and like I needed a nap. I know the going thought is when you think you are recovered, wait one more day. So I will wait one more day. But I am not happy about it. Except, I am kinda happy to take a nap.
Pasta is already to nap!
