Eugene Week 3 of 17: allllllllll the cross training (oh & some running)

This week wasn't everything it could have been, but I feel like I probably did reasonably okay under the circumstances. I'm trying to gradually up my actual running miles each week while still doing the rest of my workouts on the elliptical; last week I ran 17 actual miles with ~1.5 more hours on the elliptical, and this week I'd planned on 20 miles with ~2:10ish on the elliptical. Alas, sometimes one's body just has other plans. (Spoiler: Everything is fine now.)

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 3 OF 17~*~*~

Some Numbers:

* 18 miles running (okay)
* 44:00 elliptical (boo)
* 2:00:00 strength work (woohoo!)
* 30:00 stretch & roll (meh)

Monday: Rest / rock climbing. Holiday. :) I could have gotten up early & gone to the gym to lift like it was a normal weekday, but for the last two weeks I'd been going to bed more or less on time every night and gotten to the gym for strength work every single Monday, Wednesday, & Friday without fail, so I really felt like I'd earned sleeping in on a holiday.

Also, rock climbing is definitely its own kind of strength workout. I still haven't managed to get all the way up a 5.10a, but I've gone from being able to climb most 5.9s to pretty much any of them. Something that's especially hard for me (due to lack of upper body strength) is climbing routes that are overhung, and on Monday I got all the way up a slightly overhung 5.9 that's been particularly challenging for me for the first time.

It's back there in the corner somewhere

It was so, so hard and I seriously almost quit three times. In fact I may have actually yelled down to Don that "Seriously, I'm done now" on three separate occasions, but every time I'd look up at what was left and think, "Just see if you can go ONE move farther; then you can quit." And then at a certain point I was so close that in spite of the fact that my arms were shaking and my hands felt like Jello, quitting just seemed ridiculous.

There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere, but at the time I was too tired to find it and now I don't care anymore.

Tuesday: 2.5 easy to gym, 8 x (3:30 hard / 2:00 easy) elliptical, 1.5 easy home + 10:00 stretch & roll. (I meant to do 20:00 but got sidetracked by other things.)

I'm really nervous about taking my speed/tempo work back out on the roads/track. I keep thinking back to how I ran that 5K in December and then a few days later feeling 100% certain I had another stress fracture. Something I've been thinking about doing is splitting a speed workout between the treadmill and elliptical so that I can tap out & go back to low-impact at any time if it's making my legs unhappy. We'll see how brave I get and when.

Wednesday: a.m. strength work / p.m. karate.

Thursday: 6 easy + 20:00 stretch & roll. This run felt awesome except for two things: 1) The part where apparently I had a splinter in my foot and it waited until I was 3.5 miles in to show up & put me in agonizing pain every time my right foot touched the ground thereafter. And 2), later in the evening I started to have some shin splints/MTSS pain in my left leg, which is something I've had on & off for, oh, 20+ years.

Friday: a.m. strength work / p.m. 2.5 easy to gym, 3 x (7:45 @ HM effort / 1:00 easy) elliptical, 1.5 home The MTSS stuff in my left leg was bothering me all day, even just walking around, but it started feeling a little better toward the afternoon, so I decided to give running a shot. Alas, I only made it about a third of a mile before it was aching pretty badly. My mantra these days is to be super-conservative about anything going on in my lower leg bones, so I just walked back home & tried not to feel too bad about it. (Another thing I'm working on...)

Saturday: Skiing! If we hadn't spent the day in Tahoe, I probably would have given Friday's tempo workout another shot, but at least I got some form of cardio in (and also had a lot of fun). I neglected to take any pictures this time, but I DID take an actual lesson for the first time ever, and at the end of the day, they sent me this:

LEVEL 6!!!! I have no idea what that means so I'm just going to assume it means I'm *amazing*.

If you really need a picture, here's one from a previous trip.

It was pretty much like that except WAY colder and actually snowing.

Sunday: 7 easy. My schedule called for another 12-14 mile long run, so I had plans to once again do an hour of running plus an hour of elliptical. But after skiing all day Saturday & getting home at 12:30 in the morning, I slept for 10 hours AND THEN woke up feeling really, really terrible. (Like, I couldn't eat & kept thinking I was about to throw up.) Thankfully it finally wore off, but since we had plans to meet friends at 4, I ended up without much time for running/elliptical. On the plus side, 1) this is the farthest I've run post-sfx, and 2) my leg/shin splints felt totally fine. Woohoo!

Next week hoping to get maybe 20-22 miles, & maybe (maybe?) try some faster intervals on the treadmill & see how it feels. Also I think skiing the whole weekend, though, so I may have to get a little creative with my scheduling...