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!