Week in Review: Feb. 6 - 12

This is my weekly training journal. Including it in the blog gives me a little extra accountability in the mileage department & helps me stick to my schedule. :)

1 Week to Bay Breeze 10K

6 Weeks to Oakland Half Marathon

Hey, congrats all you trail racers! I wish I could have tagged along, but alas I was stuck working 9-4 both Saturday & Sunday. Not really my ideal weekend, but at least they're paying me for it.

This week turned out to be a perfect storm of running fail. Well, not fail, really; more like loss of momentum. In addition to a busier-than-usual M-F work week & working all weekend, I had my 3rd degree brown belt testing (a big one because it's my last before black belt) at karate on Monday, so I knew I might have to be a little more creative in terms of finding time to run. Also, while I don't normally think of testings as being all that big of a deal in terms of exertion and stress, physically this week has felt sort of like a post-race week (soreness, random leg pains, general exhaustion) and I kind of wonder if maybe that's part of why. In any case, mileage was looking pretty bleak by mid-week, but I did rally enough towards the weekend to at least keep myself semi-respectable (for very generous definitions of "semi").

Monday: Testing + strength work. Yay! :D

Tuesday: 2 wu + 4 x 10:00 @ 10K pace Strength work + running fail. In addition to just plain feeling exhausted, I was super sore & having some weird pain in my forefoot/ball-of-foot areas. that made even walking uncomfortable & had me googling 'running pain sesamoid.' I probably could have forced myself through a few easy miles & went back & forth for a while about whether that would be a smart & hardcore thing to do or a dumb & reckless one that I would regret the next day. In the end I just did my strength work & called it good.

It's been mostly like this.

Wednesday: 8 easy (not) + karate + strength work. Most of the time preceding a run with two rest days is a recipe for awesome, but this was just HARD. Yes, it was unusually warm, but towards the end I felt like I could barely keep my legs moving. It's hard for me to believe that I was still that worn down from the testing after two days; then again, I suppose I've felt this way for multiple days after racing 5Ks & 10Ks so maybe it's not so crazy. Anyway, I couldn't think of any other reason for it.

Thursday: Running fail. Still a bit sore & having foot pain, but mostly I was just exhausted still. Another day I went back & forth with myself about whether I was being smartly conservative or just letting the couch win.

Friday: 2 wu + 3 x 1 mi @ HM pace + 3 easy = 8 total. Still feeling worn out but negotiated my way out the door with a little winter pesto and a promise to myself that if I felt really miserable or had bad foot pain I could just do a few easy miles to avoid another goose egg for the week. I did not actually believe I had enough gas in the tank to run at HM pace for very long, but felt better enough after two warm-up miles that I decided to try. They turned out passably okay, though I had to work much MUCH harder for them than I did the last time I did this workout. Still, no goose egg!

Saturday: 6 easy. The ball-of-foot pain wasn't too bad & I actually felt like I could have run a few more easy miles Saturday, but this was about all I had time for between work & dinner.

Sunday: Got home later than expected from work & the weird foot pain was back. No running. Again -- smart? Lame? Who can say?

Grand Total: 22 miles

So yeah; not really the week I had planned. Trying not to beat myself up for it too badly, given all the weird foot pain & extra soreness from the testing Monday (?). I'm running Bay Breeze 10K next weekend so I was planning to keep it < 30 next week, but since it's not an A race & really just more of a fitness gauge, I may do a little more than I'd originally had planned & just take it easy the two days before the race.