Sometimes things in life are amazing, great and you think they can't get much better....as far as my Cap City Half Marathon training goes however, this was NOT one of those weeks. Definitely no rainbows and butterflies...just lots of hardship and pain.
Rewind to last Sunday...I had an amazing 9.6 mile run...I felt like I could have run longer if I would have had the time to. Monday was a rest day and then Tuesday's run I ran outside and it was HORRIBLE!! Awful to say the least. My legs felt tired and like I had lead in my shoes...totally miserable almost 4 mile run. I gave myself another day off on Wednesday then proceeded to do another 4 mile run on Thursday. Though it wasn't quite as miserable, I had pain in my left foot/ankle area...not good. I've been dealing with that the past few days since. It just feels like my calf muscle is tight and the bottom of my foot is bruised or something. I tried breaking in my new pair of Mizuno Wave Riders 16's since my other Mizuno's are getting towards the end of their life cycle. Not sure if it's the breaking in the new shoes, running in the old ones earlier in the week...who knows.
So I get to today...it was supposed to be my long run. Was hoping to put in some good miles today, but the longer the day went on the more I felt it wasn't the best idea. My foot still hurt a little and I just don't want to push it. Hubby gave me a wonderful foot massage and that helped a lot....so I opted to not run my long run today. Am I bummed...yes, but I'd be even more bummed if I hurt myself so bad that I couldn't run, so I'm glad that I'm far enough before race day that I can afford the luxury to take a few extra days off...so today instead of running I did some stretching exercises which really did help and I'm seriously thinking of incorporating these into a post run routine. Also I'm thinking that maybe stretching a little before a run would be somewhat beneficial. I don't usually stretch before a run (I do a warm up walk, but not a stretch). I've heard both sides that you should or shouldn't. I may try it and see if it helps me. I do stretch after a run though. So what's next?? Well I'm going to try and do a run tomorrow and see how I do. And if I don't make it into a long run, I'm ok with that...it's not the end of the world and I don't want to push myself so hard that I ruin this for myself....and that is my ultimate fear. That something happens that I hurt myself and can't race. So I'm just going to ease back into it and go from there and see how it goes.
On other news, had a great girls day out yesterday. It was just nice to get out and enjoy some shopping and cheesecake. :) Though it was funny because most of our purchases were all running related. I found myself some much needed new sports bras and a cute tank that I think will match my running skirt perfectly. Also found one of those little hand-held water bottles....gonna try that out on my next long run and see if that works for me...not sure yet if I want something to hold during the race or something around my waist. Luckily we have some time to figure that out.
Well I know this wasn't one of my more cheerful witty posts, but I just want to keep it real...not everything about training is fun, easy or rainbows and butterflies. Sometimes there are obstacles and struggles on the way to a dream. The thing is to not let it beat you, defeat you and to overcome those things. So here is to the next few months of overcoming ;). Have a great weekend!
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