Week 4 Recap

So, this whole "follow the training schedule to a T" thing isn't happening quite the way I had envisioned.  Sure enough, my cough from last weekend turned into another full blown cold (although not nearly as debilitating as last time) and kept me out of commission at the beginning of the week.  The rest of the week shaped up to be pretty interesting though!

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday
Rest, rest & rest.  Monday and Tuesday were spent home from work sleeping.  Wednesday I dragged myself to the gym for my personal training appointment, and once my trainer saw me she sent me right back home to rest.  At this rate I'm thinking about spending the rest of my training in a haz-mat suit.

Thursday
Finally felt decent enough to get my first run of the week in.  Me, Steph and Emily set out for 5ish miles around Brighton and it was pretty uneventful for the first half of the run.  I was still hacking up my lungs but managed to stay upright and moving, which is always a win.

About 3 miles in we all got quite the adrenaline rush.  We were stopped at a crosswalk waiting to cross the street when we got the walking man signal to go.  We start on our merry way when I see a car out of the corner of my eye that looks like it's not slowing down at all... and then I see it getting closer and closer and the woman not paying attention.  I yelled to Steph and Emily who were in front of me and the car LITERALLY just stopped in enough time to brush Emily before slamming on their brakes.  I unleashed on this lady and started screaming my head off like a crazy person... may have hit her car with my hand in my fit of rage (I think I hurt my hand more than I hurt her car)... and she just sat there and stared at us.  And for the record, we had the right of way, were in reflective gear and bright clothes, and were following the correct traffic pattern.  I SURE hope this lady learned her lesson and sees me going bat-shit crazy on her if she ever thinks about driving stupid again!

Steph's Facebook status that night - people need to learn how to drive!!!!

We ended up finishing our run with 5.7 miles and let's just say that we had some extra adrenaline to fuel those last couple of miles!!

Friday
After our near-death experience on Thursday, we decided to take our Friday evening run to some much less crowded neighborhood streets.  Earlier in the day at work I had a Shamrock Shake that gave me some sugar to fuel a post-work run.  (Note: Remember this shamrock shake for future reference).  It was gorgeous out and letting Emily pace the run means we had a super speedy 3 miler done in no time!

Saturday

I woke up yesterday morning ready to tackle double digits.  I had some weird stomach issues going on Friday night (sham-shake side effects?) and was relieved when I woke up feeling okay.  It was chilly out, but not too bad and the roads were nice and clear.  Ten glorious miles here I come!

The first two miles felt like the usual get-the-blood-moving, shake-it-out warm up and I was feeling good.  As we trekked through the second mile, I started to feel some stomach/intestinal issues going on and things went downhill real fast from that point forward.

Thankfully, we happened to be running by Laura's house on our route (well we might have made a slight detour to get there) and she kindly let me use the facilities.  I've never had stomach issues on a run before so I was hoping that this one pit stop would get me feeling better and good to go.

Wrong.  (Warning: unfiltered story ahead).  The next 8 miles consisted of the most gnarly intestinal issues I have ever had.  For two hours, I was doing one of two things: either running into a random porta-potty/public bathroom along our route, or trying not to be one of those runners who poops their pants during a run.  It. Was. Brutal.  

THIS is what I blame it on

The only thing I did differently from my usual day-before-a-longrun-routine was my afternoon Shamrock Shake at work.  I'm convinced that this was the culprit for the demons in my intestines on Saturday morning.  No more shamrock shakes....ever.

About two miles from the end of this disastrous run, we ran into this little snow sculpture.  Steph (who was a trooper for hanging out and waiting at each and every emergency bathroom stop I had to make) told me to go pose with it, and it now serves as proof that I smiled at least once on this run.

I don't think I have ever been so happy for a run to be over.  Woof.

Alternate titles for this post included: "Rochester Bathroom Tour 2013" and "That Time I Shit My Way Through 10 Miles."

Sunday

Woke up to a text from Becca asking my thoughts on skipping our morning yoga class.  One look at the snow coming down out my window and I was content just hanging out with these guys for the day:

Mileage Recap

Total miles: 19.17    Scheduled miles: 21

So in four weeks of training, the Marathon Gods have thrown the flu, bronchitis and GI issues my way.    Here's to hoping I'm getting all these issues out of the way now and the rest of training will be smooth(er) sailing!

Week 3 Recap

Week 3 has officially come to a close and although the week didn't shake out quite as planned, we've got another week in the books.

Monday

Rest day.  Attempted to do some yoga on my own but called it quits after I fell into my dresser while trying to master Warrior 3.  I'll stick with the pro's teaching me from now on.

Tuesday

I had 4 miles scheduled for this day.  Ended up staying at work late and decided to lay down for a quick 15 minute "power nap" when I got home.  Well, that "quick nap" turned into an accidental 2.5 hour sleep fest as I slept right through my alarm.  Whoops.  Needless to say, I logged a whopping zero miles this day.  Sometimes your sleepy body just wins I guess.

Wednesday

On Wednesday's I have my weekly session with my trainer at the gym.  Since I renewed my membership, I got 10 thirty minute personal training sessions along with it.  This was my second week and let me tell you, when someone is there making sure you are squatting and lunging and crunching just right -- there is no cheating!  30 minutes may not seem like a long time but it's long enough for my trainer to kick my butt.  After my session I decided to make it a cross training day and headed to an hour spin class which I haven't done in a few weeks.  Felt so good to be back on the bike!

Thursday

First run of the week.  Better late than never, right?  Steph and I went to the track to get in some speed work and ended up doing 800m repeats with 100-200m recovery jogs in between.  My legs had been itching to run all week and I definitely challenged myself on this workout.  I ended with 3.45 miles in 38:47, an 11:15 pace.  Considering that pace included the warm up and cool down, I'm pretty pumped to see that number.

Friday

Rest day.  I thought I went a little too hard into beast mode on Thursday because I was hacking up a lung all day Friday.  Went to the doc and turns out I'm rocking a mild case of bronchitis.  I swear I can't catch a break!  I picked up some ammo to get me through the work day and am working on kicking this smoker's cough to the curb for good.

Saturday

Since the weather was supposed to be awful on Saturday morning, Fleet Feet actually cancelled the morning group run.  Safety first!  It was so nice to sleep in on a Saturday -- I forgot what that felt like!  After having a lazy morning, Steph and I hit the snowy roads for a quick few miles.  Snow packed roads, kinda chilly, but absolutely gorgeous scenery.

Sunday

We thought we were doing ourselves a favor by moving our long run to today, thinking that we'd have a shot at better weather.  Well, the streets were plowed but the temperature?  Oh just a nice NINE DEGREES.  It was bitter.  So chilly in fact, that this happened again:

welcome back, frozen hair.

Although it was frigid, my body felt pretty darn good on the run.  We did a two loop route and stopped back at our cars after the first loop to refill water and to get some more warm and dry gear on.  Since my lungs hate me and the cold temps weren't helping my breathing at all, Steph gave me her sweet head cover to wear so I could breathe in warm air.  I felt like a badass rocking this thing.

bring it on mother nature

As we set off for the second loop it was crazy what a difference this little bank robber mask made in not freezing my lungs.  As cold as it was, it made for another darn pretty run:

Nine miles in nine degree weather and we've got another long run in the books!  The last mile or so was tough but when we were done I felt like I could have kept running if I had too.  Always a good feeling!

Mileage Recap

Total miles: 15.65    Scheduled miles: 19 

Thanks to my Tuesday night snooze my miles are lower than scheduled, but the quality of the runs I did do was awesome, so I'm still calling this week a win.

Week 4, here I come!

Week 2 Recap

Two weeks down and we're truckin' right along...

Monday - rest, glorious rest

Tuesday - 3.63 miles 

Wednesday - 30 minute personal training session at gym; arms & abs focus

Thursday - 3.2 miles

Friday - rest, glorious rest

Saturday - 7.17 miles

Sunday - 2 miles on treadmill & 60 minute yoga class

Total Miles: 16;   Scheduled Miles: 15

Last week was a crazy week and there really wasn't a whole heck of a lot of exciting things that went down.  My weekday runs were tougher than usual but Saturday was a rockstar run so it all evens out in the wash, right?

Tuesday's run, although pretty brutal for me, was memorable because Steph got engaged!  Coach Rob proposed right before our group run at Fleet Feet and I'm pretty sure that I screamed louder than Steph did.  I love me some love.

congrats guys!

I'll leave you with one more thing before training week 3 and corporate america swallows me alive for the next 7 days.

So I occasionally check out my blog hits and see what crazy search phrases land people on Molly's Miles.  I thought I hit the jackpot of weirdness when the term "Best Calves Ever" was one of the Google searches that lead someone to my blog.  That is, until I discovered this new gem yesterday...

I'm sorry, what?  It must have been quite the buzzkill when whoever typed that into Google found themselves on my wholesome little running blog.  Better luck next time dude?

And on that note.... Week 3 here I come.  Fully clothed, don't worry.