I haven’t really been updating since not much has changed for me weight wise, been holding in the low/mid 150’s I keep snacking, its an issue but I’ve just been so hungry! All the running I think, need to adjust my meals a bit but I’ve been lazy.
I have another half marathon this Sunday, it’s my big race of the season. I originally wanted to get a sub 2 hour for this but I don’t think I’m quite there yet. And honestly all around I’m freaking out not trusting my training, because it wasn’t where I wanted it to be all the time. and I was just physically unable to fit in everything I wanted. There is literally nothing I could have done, I trained hard, I just wanted to train harder for some reason.
And honestly, my freaking out is stupid and unnecessary. I mean, not to be I’m so awesome, but basically, I’m guaranteed a PR, my last half, was awful in pretty much every way, I had a cold, so my breathing was suffering, I went out too fast, the course sucked, I didn’t have water on me and felt there wasn’t enough water stations, adding to my misery. And it was just an all around not my day kind of run. Also had my period, but that’s likely happening again this time about so we can cancel that one out. Anyways, all of that and I still PR’d by 4 minutes on a tougher course – it was flat as appose to downhill like my first.
So this half coming up I’ll be on an easier course, there’s a hill or two but I don’t mind those, and aside from those it’s all downhill, that will naturally speed me up. Plus I *kock on wood* am not sick so my lungs should be working fine, and I’m bringing water with me. Also it won’t be below 0 (Celsius, that day was actually pretty fab weather considering we were acclimated to -15 temps). Although it may be hot… Is that better or worse? I’m not sure anymore. Better for the muscles, I do get a bit cranky when I’m hot though. ha. It’ll be early morning at least and I’ll probably dress very light, no shorts as I haven’t done a long run in shorts I have longer tight shorts but I’ve never run in them so absolute no-no but i’ll probably bring out my heat gear capris and will wear at most a tshirt, I’ll check the weather the night before and might even consider a tank top. Anything to not my too warm. I ran my last race on a long sleeve and I wasn’t even running that at pace and I wanted to die I got so hot.
What I’m most excited for for this race is to be DONE. I’ve been on an intense 4-month training cycle because I’m a psycho and planned 3 big races each a month apart. 4 month training cycles are not uncommon, but they’re usually structured far differently, basically I did 2-2 month training cycles, the kind you go into when you have a solid base build and I looking to add intensity. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But yeah. wow it was tough. The last couple weeks leading into this taper were insane and I was sore. I’m still sore. I’m cutting out my run tomorrow to give my disaster of a right leg more recovery time. It’s just all kinds of tight.
Anyways I’m now done this training cycle and am looking at 2-3 weeks of easy recovery runs (minus a 10k 2 weeks after my half… did I mention I’m insane?) and then heading into maintenance I’m looking forward to leaving things unstructured. I want to be in the 40-50km range each week to maintain, which is kind of what I’ve been doing but I’ll be doing less intense. And I’ll be opened to doing less if my body wants that, or if I personally want that, like spending more time on my bike or in the pool or doing yoga or whatever! I’ll also try harder at getting in my necessary strength exercises, I need to work hard on getting my hips and glutes strong and ready to carry me through marathon training which I’ll be starting around August or September.
I’m going to aim to throw in some weeks where I run 5 times a week. I struggled with that this cycle, I wanted to do 5 but I was finding it hard to recover from, so I want to throw them in some weeks but cut back the next week to get my body use to it. This way I can head into my marathon training being able to handle 5 days. To get in the milage I want to for my marathon training I’ll need to do 5 days to avoid doing long runs every night. My milage will be topping up as it gets dark early so I’ll want to keep runs as short as I can. Even though fall night runs ARE my favourite.
I’m excited at the prospect of keeping my schedule opened, but I’ve literally never done this. I’m a creature of habit so I don’t know if I’ll actually follow this oh maybe I’ll run today! Maybe I’ll bike! One thing though is I’ve made a lot of running friends lately who do are all into things I’m in to as well so I’m always more willing to switch things up when other people are involved which I think is my main motivator. If I was left to myself to decide to run this Tuesday but bike next Tuesday, I’d never do that, I run Tuesdays, always have. But is a friend suggested a Tuesday bike ride, I’d switch things up and go on that bike ride!
Side note I went to the bathroom while writing this and potentially my period is here now.. which blows my mine because that means it is EARLY. WHICH HAS NEVER EVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. I’ve been 31 days the past couple months, 32 for the couple before that. If it is here now that puts me at 27 days. WHAAAT that’s even less than 4 weeks. Like that’s legitimately early for non PCOSer’s no? Well I guess everyone is different and I don’t fully no my schedule yet since it has gotten shorter even since i’ve been regular.
Anyways this is GREAT news if it is in fact here because then it was essentially be done with by Sunday and that would be FABULOUS. I was here stressing because Sunday was going to be day 2 ie heaviest day and running kinda of forces everything out of you so I was seriously worried about the tampon situation
Fighting PCOS Weight 