I’ve finished 14 of my 18 weeks of marathon training.  Woo Hoo!

Where’s what the week was like:

• Sunday:  Christmas – Off!!  Spent the day/night in Houston.
• Monday:  I set out all of my clothes in the hotel room and went to bed with a plan to wake up and run in the gym.  Good job, right?  I planned to run on the TM since it was supposed to rain the next morning.  As I was trying to get comfortable to fall asleep, I remembered that I didn’t have my contacts.  It is impossible to run in glasses  – at least it is for me.  Strike 1.  For the next hour and a half, I struggled with restless legs.  I’ve never been diagnosed with it, but I have symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome.  Sometimes when I lie down to go to sleep, my legs start hurting and the only thing that relieves the pain/discomfort is to rock my legs back and forth.  It’s pretty crappy.  Strike 2.  I did finally fall asleep, but after what seemed like an hour passed, my alarm went off.  Time to get up and run.  I was beyond drowsy and my throat was feeling kind of scratchy.  (My husband went to sleep feeling really bad with a sore throat.)  Strike 3.  Oh, well.  For a few hours, I kinda tricked myself into thinking that I’d run when we got back home.  That didn’t happen.

• Tuesday:  Slept late (school’s out!).  Ran 5 miles outside.  I got a Nike running watch from my husband for Christmas and this was my first run using it.  I like it!  My wrist is a little small so the watch is a teeny bit too big, but other than that, I enjoyed using it.  The numbers on the display are big and I can see them easily – unlike his Garmin.  I can’t see the display when I am wearing contacts.
• Wednesday:  5 miles of intervals on the treadmill.  I ran much faster than usual, averaging 9:54m miles.  I usually average 10:30m miles when doing intervals on the TM  🙂
• Thursday:  9  miles going slow (combination of Monday and Friday’s ‘easy’ runs)  I was trying to ‘catch up’ with my miles after missing my run on Monday.  This was NOT a good idea.  I was tired and sluggish.  Four miles would have been plenty.   I had to ‘go’ for about half of the run and I started looking around for somewhere like a drugstore (which I’d already passed) and then I passed a spot in a wooded area where we passed a lady relieving herself in the trees last year.  Didn’t need to go THAT bad!
• Friday:  off

• Saturday:  New Year’s Double Half Marathon (While standing in line at packet pick up on Thursday, a woman asked me “Oh, are you running the 5K?”  Uh, yeah.  And the half marathon – and I’m training for a FULL marathon!  This annoys me – she looked at me and for whatever reason decided that I was running a 5K.   I know – move on – get over it.  Still makes me upset.  The run was a struggle.  I was tired – TIRED.  My husband and I ran together.  We averaged about 11:30m miles – so that was good.  I was feeling pretty bad about it – this was supposed to be an easy run.  How can I run a FULL 26.2 miles if I struggled to run 13??  sigh

• Sunday:  New Year’s Double 5K – My husband and I ran the second day so we could get this VERY NICE double medal plate/holder!!  It was windy and kind of cold.  My chest kept hurting from the cold air.   It was warmer than the day before so I don’t know what was going on with me.  I got my medals and the backer plate, though.

Total miles for this week:  38.5

TMI Alert! 

Earlier in the week, I was online searching for new running tights because one day, here in the Dallas area, it is going to be cold and I am going to need to run in it.  I came across a forum where a woman posted a question about running ‘commando’ style.  WHAT??  Who. Does. That?  Apparently, lots of people.  Where have I been?  Oh, FYI:  I am referring to WOMEN.  I think it’s fine for a man to run commando with tights AS LONG AS THEY ARE COVERED UP WITH SHORTS!!!  No ‘dangling’, please!  PLEASE!?!

So anyway, I started thinking…  There must be some benefit to running without underwear.  I mean, I can’t wear anything that I run in twice anyway;  I sweat too much – even in the cold.  So, cleanliness can’t be an issue.  I frequently have to tug and adjust my panties to stop them from pinching or riding up so WHY NOT RUN COMMANDO STYLE??  Should I be concerned about the ‘camel toe’?  Would it feel gross?  Is it unsanitary?  Would there be too much jingling?  What do you think?

Well…  I ran ‘commando’ on Saturday during the half marathon.  I was self conscious about it for a while and it seemed like I was sweating more than normal, which is strange.   I would have guessed that I would sweat LESS with less fabric on my body.  I enjoyed having one less thing to move around and get out of place while I ran.  If there was excessive jingling of ‘junk’, I didn’t notice it!

I found myself looking at other women to see if I could tell if they were wearing underwear.  Hopefully, I didn’t look too long at anyone!  A bunch of women looked like they were running without panties.  I saw a lady with tights on that were too thin and you could see clean through them!  It was very disturbing.  She was wearing black thongs and you could see them pretty clearly.  I wondered if the guy that she was running with maybe should have said something to her.  Eww.  I saw quite a few ‘camel toes’ on the course, too.  Size didn’t seem to matter where the CT was concerned, either.  There were big ones, small ones…   I was less bothered by them than I thought I would be.  How would you avoid ‘the toe’ with just tights on, anyway?

You know what I was more bothered by?  WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH RUNNING WITHOUT A BRA????  Am I jealous or concerned for these ladies’ breast health?  Quite a few women were running with just a tank top on.  I think I’m just jealous.  I could NEVER do that and it did look kind of comfortable.  But no… couldn’t do it – talk about disturbing and PAINFUL!   ANYWAY…

What’s the verdict on running commando?  It’s pretty comfortable albeit a little sweaty.  I do think, however, that you need to make sure your tights aren’t see through…  The running outfit takes on a whole new look then.

On to a new week!

No rest day this weekend and I’m getting pretty tired these days.  I don’t have any specific pain to point to.  I just feel weary.   I knew I would get to this point where I just didn’t want to run anymore.  I’ll just have to push through it, I guess.

Here’s what’s on my schedule for this week:

• Monday:  4 easy miles – outside
• Tuesday:  5 miles at marathon pace – I’m planning to run this outside instead of on the TM
• Wednesday:  6 miles doing intervals (not looking forward to this!) – on the TM
• Thursday:  off – I WILL SOOOOO NEED THIS DAY OFF!!!
• Friday:  5 easy miles – outside
• Saturday:  22 miles (my heart is beating fast just thinking about it…  I need to figure out WHERE I’m running.)

Total miles:  42 – w.o.w.

Wish me luck! 

I am not sure if I can do this or not, BUT I AM GOING TO GIVE IT ALL I’VE GOT.