Tuesday: Got myself up and out of bed for the first time EVER this summer and went for a nice morning run for my slotted 3 miles EZ. I opted for 8/2 intervals and got some decent speeds for each interval in the 10-11min range. My right knee started really hurting at 2.5 miles and I felt like I ran/limped my last half mile. Other than that, the run was great, mostly just proud of myself for getting out of bed. Trick: slept in my running clothes. No lie. 12:06 pace.
Thursday: Set off for an early evening run and planned to do 8/2 intervals around and adjoining neighborhood. I think I definitely found a good hill for some hill repeats. (Guess that’s why there’s the word “Hill” in the neighborhood’s name?) This run didn’t start off well with arch pain and when my knee pain from Tuesday hit me with a vengeance at mile 1.5, I called it a day with 2 miles and cut the slotted 4 mile EZ run in half. I went home and did some knee stretches and exercises and called it a night… My knee REALLY hurt when I went to straighten my knee anytime that night, so I’m glad I didn’t push it… even if I’m sad to have gone off plan. 12:10 pace.
Saturday: Jon and I actually skipped this run unintentionally. What was meant to be a quick rearrangement of stuff in my mom’s garage so that I could put some of my packed boxes there vs. my bedroom ended up turning into a full scale clean up of the garage… that filled ALL our garbage cans plus a few boxes… and that was only half the garage. Jon plans to attack the rest when he’s in town at the end of the week so that we can have an epic garage sale this weekend. We also went and saw Harry Potter 7 Part II for a hot date since Jon has been diligently watching the other 6 movies in preparation for the past few weeks. I cried a lot during the movie… just like when I saw it the first time.
Sunday: Jon and I overslept (unsurprisingly) and we set out for our run at noon. There were a few moments of cloud cover, but mostly this was a run in the sun. I am REALLY not good with running in the heat (will need to work on this before moving to Alabama, that’s for sure) and I really struggled with this run. Jon was patient as ever as we stuck to my suggested LSD pace of 13:00-14:00.
Even that pace was REALLY difficult for me in the sun and, while the first 2.5 miles were pretty easy for me, the last 2.5 were the hardest I’ve had since I tried to run on Auburn’s campus too late in the morning last summer. Not going to lie, it was a REAL struggle (read almost wanted to cry) to finish this run and I did walk a few times (though no official intervals). Jon and I had originally planned to shoot for an extra mile (making it a 6 mile EZ over a 5-mile EZ to make up for Saturday), but I couldn’t do it and he graciously walked with me the rest of the way home. I’ve never had a run be this hard—I came home after and we tried to get lunch together and all I could get down was a cup of milk and a few bites of yogurt. I actually felt sick… I’ve never had that happen before. I did feel a bit more justified about being effected by the heat when I went to put on PJs last night and noticed that I had a sunburn in the shape of my running tank. So there. Best parts about this run: running and spending time with Jon, keeping a consistent pace, and most of all: no knee pain. I think the extra day of rest really helped.
Overall: This week was just OK for running. It’s a lot harder getting back into it than I thought it would be, but I have faith that if I can just push through this, I can actually get to a point where I enjoy it again. Right now, definitely not enjoying it. Here’s to Week 3:
• 3 miles EZ
• 5 miles w/ 2 miles @ tempo (between 11:23-11:53… see above)
• 6 miles LSD (13:02-14:02)
Total mileage: 17 miles! Woo!
