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August 28, 2007
Blogging Because I (desperately) Need to Procrastinate
I am prone to freak outs, and I am freaking out. I am not in the midst of a running freak-out, but I am in the midst of an "OhMyGoshHowInTheWorldAmIGoingToRunWriteTeachBreatheEatSleep." SLEEP! Sleep be gone. It's only the 2nd day of classes and I am already contemplating an all-nighter. I have almost 90 students with 90 very colorful and different personalities. Two of my classes have the potential to crash and burn. Two have the potential to be Wow-Tastic!
I need to keep reminding myself that I am the one driving the boat this week - while I don't have complete control over the class dynamic, I do have some control over whether or not it sinks or floats. I would love to have four floaters, but we'll see. I am cautiously optimistic, but cynically realistic.
ANYWAY, my running is still going strong! I have four more weeks of gut-wrenching workouts and then I skate into a two week taper (butterflies are tumbling!). I cannot believe the Chicago Marathon is only 6 weeks away . . . I can hear the gun snap as I type.
I hit 68 miles last week (this week - a big drop back week - will be 60 and next week will be close 80). I had three solid workouts: A Tuesday Fartlek where we ran 4 minutes easy and 3 minutes hard, but the hard and easy intersected in the end and we were running 6:15 pace for the hard and 6:30 for the easy. Solid work! Thursday was 4x1200. I tanked. The goal was to hit 4:25 with 60 seconds rest. I hit 4:23, 4:26, 4:27, 4:29. OUCH.
I am running on extremely fatigued and tired legs, BUT my times are a second or three faster than they were a few weeks ago. While that is good, H. said I was being "mental" on Thursday and that I let my mental doubt impact my workout . . . I don't have enough time to deconstruct my mental state at the moment, but I don't doubt his assessment. He is generally dead on.
On Saturday we ran 15 miles with 12 miles hard. The goal was to alternate hard and easy miles 7:15/6:15. I was slow on the first hard mile (6:18), but then my final five miles were 6:06, 6:15, 6:08, 6:09, 6:01. The easy miles were all between 6:45 - 6:55. I wanted to quit at mile 3, but H. quietly encouraged me to hang in there - he reminded me that my legs would wake up. He also asked a rhetorical question: "Well, how do you think you are going to feel at mile 24?" Yeah - I had to pull it together after that!
On Sunday I ran a blissfully easy 20 miles - the goal was to spend as much time on my feet as possible and run easy. Run easy I did. And - damn - I enjoyed it!
I rested on Monday (my Sabbath in this training cycle). Today I hit the lakefront for 12 miles. I warmed up and cooled down for 5 miles and did a 7.25 mile progression run starting at 6:50 pace, 6:35, 6:30, 6:2?, 6:11, 6:12, 6:22 (OOPS). I am not going to over-analyze the final mile in 6:22. It is what it is.
I'm exhausted - too exhausted to do any work (especially since I woke up at 4:15AM and hit the lakefront to run by 5:00AM). It's 9:46PM and I have at least 6 hours of work ahead of me.
And so it begins. I just CANNOT let my running go to shit now - I have worked too hard to lose this rhythm.
But, of course, I AM worried. My work life is important - very important. I have 90 kids who need me to show up everyday and be my energetic and eccentric self. I do not want to fail them. At the same time, I do not want to fail myself after months of hard work. I don't want to toe the line on October 7th and run out of gas at mile 11 because I am tired.
Life is about finding balance. I need to work extra hard to have some kind of balance (at least for the next 6 weeks!).
Posted by bridget at August 28, 2007 9:21 PM
Comments
SUPER running! yes, those school kids need you but i've said it before and i'll say it again: they'll forgive you come october. do your thing!
Posted by: carrie g. at August 29, 2007 9:34 PM
keep your running front and center for the next 6 weeks. your 90 kids will survive if they only get 90% of your attention as opposed to what I can only assume is your desire to give them the metaphysically impossible 110%
Posted by: indigo at August 30, 2007 9:30 AM
keep your running front and center for the next 6 weeks. your 90 kids will survive if they only get 90% of your attention as opposed to what I can only assume is your desire to give them the metaphysically impossible 110%
Posted by: indigo at August 30, 2007 9:40 AM
keep your running front and center for the next 6 weeks. your 90 kids will survive if they only get 90% of your attention as opposed to what I can only assume is your desire to give them the metaphysically impossible 110%
Posted by: indigo at August 30, 2007 9:56 AM
I obviously felt my comment to be VERY important to justify posting it at least 3 times . . .
Posted by: indigo at August 30, 2007 10:06 AM
Don't worry about the kids. I suspect they are already quite inspired by you, even if you don't know it.
I am tremendously impressed by the way you now seem to let the training and the races come to you, instead of pushing too hard. Good planning, hard work and preparation are going to pay off in a big way the second weekend in October.
Posted by: Gerard at September 10, 2007 10:45 PM
Don't worry about the kids. I suspect they are already quite inspired by you, even if you don't know it.
I am tremendously impressed by the way you now seem to let the training and the races come to you, instead of pushing too hard. Good planning, hard work and preparation are going to pay off in a big way the second weekend in October.
Posted by: Gerard at September 10, 2007 10:45 PM