I’m a Mega Slacker (Days 30-34)

In the blogging department and the running/workout department.  I’ll take it one day at a time (and try not to bore you to death).

Wednesday (Day 30)

I decided I needed to implement more speed work because I feel like I’m getting slower, so friend and wicked awesome paysah Don had posted a run the other day with these pretty sweet step down intervals.  Coachy’s gonna do it too – so I want in on this game.  I choose my intervals to look like this:

It looks intimidating, no?

I’m not completely healed from this allergy/cold thing that I had a couple weeks ago, my lungs are still suffering when I push hard.  It ended up looking like this:

Boo… well any run is better than no run, but I just want my lungs back.  There are a few good splits in there, but I had hoped for better.  I’m going to try again this week, but with straight up plain, simple 1/4 mile intervals.  Hopefully I can quickly recondition myself.

I quickly forgot how crappy my supposed to be speedwork run was because: 

IT WAS NATIONAL LOBSTER DAY!

My mom had already planned on sirloin tips – so we made a beautiful surf and turf dinner to celebrate!

Alive, but frozen.  The humane way to boil a lobster?

You’ll only feel it for a minute, I swear.

Yum yum. He’s a big feller.

 This meal almost made me feel better…but I’m not one to let a crappy run get me down…

Thursday (Day 31)

It was hot.  I waited until 7:45 at night to run.  It was still hot.  I drank my whole Nuun water bottle full of plain water while out on this run.  BUT – It was a GREAT tempo run.  I had originally planned 6 miles – warmup, 4 @ 9:45 tempo (slowish for me, but still trying to regain my lungs), cool down.  7:45 is getting close to dark, so I went with an abbreviated, harder version.  After I completed mile 4, I didn’t realize how far from home I still was, but I just wanted to get off of the main roads since it was close to dark.  I implemented a walk/run process up the hills through the neighborhood back home for a cool down. 

3 supah sweet miles!

I am VERY pleased with miles 2-4.  I haven’t been able to run that pace for a while between injury, exhaustion, and being sick. It felt GREAT! I was happy.

I’ve been having a mega debate with myself though – waiting until it gets cooler at night causes me to run late, and in the dark, and then end up scrambling for dinner.  I made myself a veggie/egg scramble that was so ugly I didn’t deem it worthy of photography or blogging.  It was delicious, just ugly.  That was at 10 at night. So, do I suck it up and get used to the hot? Or do I suck it up and drag my lazy butt out of bed in the morning? MEGA debate.  I still haven’t decided.

Friday (Day 32)

I took my second day off this week.  Ugh.  Ever since I was sick I can’t find my routine.  I’m kinda pissed off at myself. I’ve decided I’m going to kick my own ass – HARD – for the next 3 weeks.  I don’t have a choice. 

I did get some stuff around the house done…but that’s boring. Oh and I carb loaded for Sunday’s long run… which didn’t happen.  More on that later.

Saturday (Day 33)

I took my third day off this week.  I’m really starting to feel like a mega slacker and the only person who can kick my butt back into gear is…

ME.

Plain. and. simple.

I really allowed myself to let this week go down the crapper.  I went to a PawSox game with my friend Sara. (They’re the AAA team for the Boston Red Sox – for those who don’t know.  I”m a huge fan…).  We had a blast.

The game was full of:

What do you see here? Sausage and peppers, chili cheese fries, and  a Narragansett.  Hey, why not go all out?

And some more of:

And friends bonding over good (bad) food, beer, and baseball:

Yes we did watch the game too:

Hideki Okajima closing out the game

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

 This was followed by ice cream, and frozen, nutty, chocolate covered bananas.  It was incredibly enjoyable – I slightly regret it now (slightly – like 0.00000001%). Which brings us to …

Sunday (Day 34)

Today I was supposed to run 20 again.  Today I was supposed to run 20 again better than the last time I ran 20 because Coachy is confident that I can – and he wants me to be super prepared and ready for marathon day.

Today – I did not run 20 miles.  I didn’t even get out of bed until 7:30 – A tad late on a predicted 80 degree day when you’re supposed to be out running for 4 hours.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooopsy.

I got up, figuring I could fight it.  Have a cup of coffee, fuel up, hydrate, and be on my way.  Wellllll…last nights junk food festival turned me into a giant blob of bloat. LOL – My ankles were swollen, my fingers were swollen, and I was DEHYDRATED.

I chatted with coachy and we decided on a different course of action.  Three 5-mile loops around my neighborhood, but push the pace to continue to help build endurance on a “shorter” run.  

I made it…

are you ready for this?

Drumroll please.

2.8 MILES

I

AM

AWESOME

LOL  Oh well.  I’ll make up this week. And next week.  

And I will.  Because I have the will power – and when I throw down with myself, look out, it gets ugly.

Wish me luck.

I leave with a few beautiful pics of what I did do today. I had a nice afternoon with my brother before I hosted my first ever Father’s Day BBQ at my house (which was fantastic!)

I was hot.  The water was cold. And yes, I got  a tad too much sun.  Time for some ocean potion.