It’s not supposed to be easy

Things have been going so well in my marathon training that I believed I was going to have the perfect training cycle.  This illusion was destroyed this week.  I was able to slog through the week but it was anything but easy.  While warming up for my 5K last Sunday I started to feel a little twinge in my right knee.  It wasn’t exactly pain, it was more like my knee saying, ” Remember me?  Do you remember how I made you hobble the last 6 miles of your first marathon?  Or how I fell apart atop Goldmine Mountain during the San Tan Scramble?”  The race went fine and I haven’t had any pain when I have been running, but I am still feeling the occasional twinge and stiffness during the day.

Tuesday I had the best speed day ever.  I went out Wednesday and felt horrible the first 4 miles of an 8 miler.  Thankfully, I caught a tailwind for the next mile and the last three I got to run in the pouring rain.  About a half mile from home I had my first dog encounter in a while.  Cujo came flying out of his yard and across the street with definite bad intentions. The house is set way back from the street, and I could see and hear the dog’s owner running across the yard to get him.  Just when Cujo got into striking distance an off duty Sherriff’s deputy pulled his pickup in between me and the dog.  He revved his engine and Cujo backed off before I had to jump in the back of the truck.  I still haven’t looked at my Garmin see what my heart rate spiked at during the encounter.

Thursday was the worst speed day ever.  I ignored the little voice that told me I needed a rest day.  The only way I can describe the feeling in my legs is “rubbery lead”.  I slogged through the workout and decided to take Friday off.  The rest on Friday enabled me to have a good Saturday Trail run with the Cadence group.

On Sunday I planned to get some downhill in at South Mountain.  Luckily I checked the website on Saturday and found out that the storm damaged the road.  The new plan was to do a 20 miler.  Got out of the house at about 4:45 and it was extremely humid.  By 2 miles I was completely drenched in sweat and feeling miserable.  After  long bargaining session with myself I decided to bail on my run and head home.  As I headed home I started to feel guilty and decided I would go for a long bike ride instead.  I soon realized that the biggest problem was hauling around my water pack and I might be able to run if I only had my handheld..  Upon getting home I changed shirts and got a new hat grabbed my handheld water bottle and headed back out for a 6 mile loop.  So when I got done with the loop I was at 10 miles and needed another change of clothes (good thing I did laundry the day before).  I squeezed into a racing singlet I haven’t worn since 2003 and was pleasantly surprised by the lack of too many unsightly bulges.  I headed out on another loop.  By this time the sun had burned off all the humidity and it was just plain hot.  I ran out of water at 3 miles out and had to alter my route to stop by a Circle K to refill.  Got back to the house with a total of 16 miles done.  Changed yet again and with the temperature climbing even higher I only got a mile from the house before I had to go back to refill.  So all and all it was a miserable 20 miles, but I finished it.

It only took 4 different shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 hats, 2 headbands, and a bandana.

I probably didn’t receive any training benefit after the first 12 miles, but psychologically I needed to be able to check that box off on my training plan.  Last night as I lay in bed I started adding up my miles for the week.  I came up with a total of 49.5, I think I am fine with rounding it up to 50.

Needless to say, Monday is going to be a rest day!