Operation Sub-2: Weekly Round-Up (1)

I may have underestimated how tough my first week of training would be. I’m at all not discouraged, but I plan to take a closer look at my training plan and make a few changes to make sure that I don't over-train.

After a short run on Sunday, cross and strength training on Monday, 40 minutes of intervals on Tuesday, a short run on Wednesday, and a tempo run on Thursday, I had my first rest day of the week on Friday.  However, my “rest” day wasn’t much of a rest day because - happily - my dad came to down for our annual Daddy-Daughter (and friends!) Wizards-Knicks game.  When I got back to my apartment, I was exhausted and felt bad for crashing early.

Yesterday, I felt a little tired throughout the morning but decided that it was more of "I should probably eat" kind of tired than a "I should probably sleep" tired.  Stef and I went out for our weekly long run in the afternoon.  The plan was to run from my apartment, over to Lincoln’s Cottage, downtown, and back for a total of 13 miles. 

Talk about hubris but after training for and running a few marathons, I’ve allowed myself to get to the point where I laugh in the face of 13 miles.  (Bad, Alisha! Bad!  Half-marathons are still fraking hard!)  The first half of the run was challenging but manageable. About six miles in, though, everything seemed to go wrong. An upset stomach and a side stitch – sure, why not? General fatigue?  Bring it.  (Stef is awesome and was more than happy to take a walk break when I needed it.)

I was so happy when we got within a mile of my apartment and I knew that I only had to push for another nine or ten minutes.  I sulked a little around my apartment after the run but decided I just needed to ease into having multiple hard workouts in a week.

My plan for Week 2 goes something like this:

Sunday: 4 miles (easy)

Monday: Cross-Training and Strength Training

Tuesday: Speed Work, 30 minutes

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 3 miles (easy)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8 miles – the JFK 20K was postponed to work around a scheduling conflict on the planned course

To lighten things up, I may swap the cross training for a really good stretching session on Monday and reduce Wednesday’s mileage to four.