Banana and soy milk smoothie with whey protein.
Half way through my strength routine I felt my stomach grumbling so I had a few sips of milk and a few grapes and that was all I needed to top up the tank long enough to hold me out for the rest of my workout.
The day was overcast so I was fortunate that it didn't matter that I was setting out for my easy run later than usual. It was supposed to be at an easy pace but I ended up bolting out on the road at more of a tempo pace. I ran up that same hill that I did the speedwork on (though I sure felt it after and it slowed me down) but I kept a solid pace for 35 minutes and then I took it easy on the way home. I guess this ended up as more of a tempo run!
Day Five: We had planned to run a hike on this day. I woke up to terribly gray skies and the soil was extremely muddy so there was no way we could run up the dirt trail of the hike. I think this was a blessing in disguise as I felt a little run down (pun SO intended). My arms ached from the day before and my body felt weary. I also felt a little low altogether so I ended up taking the day as a full rest day. I realized that I haven't taken a day where I do nothing in a while and that is actually recommended. I spent most of my day catching up on the things I haven't really had the time to do these days: sketching, reading, watching movies, harassing my pets...things like that. I had a lovely restful day and was slowly mentally gearing myself towards getting back to work the next day.
Day Six: Up at 5:30 this morning. I reaaally was not feeling for such an early start today. I rolled out of bed and went to the kitchen and stared blankly at the kitchen counter before I registered that I had to eat something quickly.
Oatmeal and banana with cinnamon and nutmeg.
The kitchen was kind of bare. Went shopping this evening.
I'm going to suppress my vanity and show you my poor toes. I still have both nails but they've gone all funky coloured like some bad tie-dye. They are sensitive to pressure and feel really bruised when I press down on them.
This picture does them justice. I've gone and painted them cherry bomb red because I'm sick of looking at them.
So I was at the track at exactly 6:30. I'm going to be very frank. I did not want to be there at all today. I really had to rally to get out of bed and face that track full of strangers and run despite my wish to crawl into my pillow case. Over the past few days I haven't been feeling myself. I actually suffer from depression and sometimes the silliest things can knock me down. Once I'm down all I feel like doing is staying in bed with my sheets up to my nose until I stop feeling miserable. I spent a lot of Sunday in bed but I was not going to let today be another one of those days. I tried to play cheery music on the drive there but that didn't help. I still got there out of sorts.
I stretched and started my warm up jog while reminding myself of today's training schedule. I was to run 1000 meters (2.5 times around the track) six times with breaks in between and try to keep good time. Its the same thing as my first speedwork session except we were adding on an interval. My warm up jog seemed to take forever and then no time at all because i realized once it was almost over that I now had to haul arse around the track several times. I stretched quickly one more time after my warm up and stood up at the starting line.
'Here goes nothing.'
I ran as quickly as I could around the track trying not to look at my watch too much. After the first lap I glanced down and my time seemed okay. I was horrified by the end of my second lap to see that my time was a bit after three minutes because I remember that the last time I did this I was finishing at 3:20-3:30. I didn't push much harder but I ran my best to the end and stopped the timer. 4:08
I was feeling unhappy about this time until I remembered something...3:30 was my 800 meter time not my 1000 meter! *face palm*
When I checked back at my first set of 1000 meter intervals I was happy to see that there was improvement.
I ran the second, third...things were getting hard by the fourth. My times were relatively consistent but I could feel myself tiring. During the fifth I was ready to stop there. After the first lap of my fifth interval I started to feel like I was burning out. I was breathing too heavily and I laboured my way around the track. I decided while running that I was only going to do five intervals like the first week. I was making all kinds of excuses up in my head like, 'Oh I'm not used to all of this running...doing five like the first time is fine.' and 'I don't really neeeed to do this do it?' I was starting to feel queasy running from running so hard. I finished the interval at the same time as the one before...but my core was so tight that I ended up coughing up red Gatorade...lovely. By the time I finished my recovery time I asked myself, 'You're really going to stop here? Are you doing this training program or not? It says six...not five...come on...just one more. Don't wimp out. You're being a baby.'
I felt like I could do it...but after the first lap I started to feel sick again and I stopped. I decided to walk a recovery lap.
During my recovery lap I was kicking myself profusely. I was mad at myself for not finishing the last interval. I knew I didn't feel good but it didn't sit well with me that I gave up. I was even more aggravated when I finished the lap because I knew I would have been done the entire interval by that time if I had kept going.
So I was going to try again.
Some people may argue that I'm too hard on myself...but this is where you really see what you can do. This is where you have to decide the level of your dedication to your goals and to yourself. I stopped on the first lap because I felt sick...but I had regrouped on the recovery lap and gathered up all of my morale to try again. I knew I had it in me and I had to see just how much. It was just one more interval after all and I refused to not finish my assignment.
Well I ran that blasted interval faster than the one before and felt sheer bliss upon finishing. I wasn't a quitter and my inner coach wasn't barking at me anymore.
Here are my times for this week:
Interval one: 00:04:08
Interval two: 00:04:15
Interval three: 00:04:23
Interval four: 00:04:20
Interval five: 00:04:20
Interval six: 00:04:17
Compared to last week where my BEST time was 00:04:44...yeah I'm thrilled.
For the rest of the day I've felt great. I don't feel like I've pushed myself cruelly hard. I feel like my myself again...like I've whipped myself back in shape. I also feel proud of myself. Training your best pays off in so many ways...you improve physically and mentally and helps you gain a sense of discipline and grounding. Its good to be back. :)
Lunch was delish if I may say so myself!
Vegan tacos: soy with organic pinto beans with homemade tomato pear salsa with extra tomato and onion as garnish, with soy cheese on top.
Spicy sweet potato oven baked chips.
And now I am at work with a million emails to send so I will end here and get back to that. I apologize for any grammatical offenses that I may have committed whilst writing this in haste!!
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