I’ve completed (sort of) my first official week of training for the marathon next February.  It was rough.  I say I ‘sort of’ completed the week’s training because I didn’t do the last 4 mile run. 

I’ve been doing a 21 day ‘No Junk Food’ Challenge and the 21st day was Friday.  My long run for the week was supposed to be Saturday.  I had plans for Friday night that involved fried fish and cake.  Fried catfish and cake do not make for a good dinner the night before a run, so….  I did my long 8 mile run on Friday and planned to do the final 4 mile run on Saturday morning.  Hmph…   That didn’t work out!

I did the long run on Friday. I actually ran 8.18 miles.  😐  (Nike+ GPS strikes again!) It was kind of hard but I got through it.  My only disappointment was how slow I ran it.  I felt myself slowing down and then by the time I thought “I need to run faster”, I’d been running half a mile at a snail’s pace.  My whole run went pretty much like that.  I guess my tempo and pace runs on the treadmill will help with this.  We’ll see.  So anyway.  I did the 8 mile run on Friday instead of Saturday – check.  On Saturday morning, I was T.I.R.E.D. and worn out – there was no way in HELL I was gonna run 4 miles Saturday morning.  I lounged around the house and slept most of the morning but I kept daydreaming that I was going to go to the gym ‘any second now’ and do the 4 mile run.  Yo no lo hice…

So, I SORT of finished my first week of training.  Five days of running is a big jump from my previous 3 days a week schedule.  Hopefully, I’ll get them all done next week.  Wish me luck!

I forgot two things:

1.  I almost fell after tripping over something on the sidewalk!  It was Friday at about mile 7 and the grass had been recently cut so clippings were all over the sidewalk.  I didn’t see anything, but I tripped.  I IMMEDIATELY  thought “I am NOT falling on my knee” and shoved my hands out in front of me to try to break the fall.  My knee got about 4-5 inches from the ground but I was able to upright myself.  I twisted my knee kind of weird and had to limp for about a half a mile, though.

2.  I KNOW why there’s a short run BEFORE the long run.  Most likely, I’ll be worn out and tired and will NEED the day off after a long run.  I should never have thought to try to do a long run and follow it the next day with with even a short one.  That’s my lesson for the week 😉 – learned the hard way.