Running Blahs

This is the second time this week I have taken a day off because I feel puny the day after a run. No fever, but achy, sneezy, congestion, and a faint sore throat. Two thoughts on why this might be:

1). I am fighting off a cold and since running can temporarily bring down the immune system, the cold is flaring up the next day.

2). I am not doing something right in the recovery phase, such as not drinking enough water or eating enough/the right things after the run, so my body is turning on me.

It really could be either, as I tend to not really eat much after a run and have to force food down my throat because I am not hungry. I doesn't help that I also don't eat much when I am feeling icky. I wish that it was the other way around: when I don't run, I don't shove food down the hatch at an alarming rate.

Needless to say, no 5 mile run today. Instead, naps and fluids. I had this problem in 2008 when I was first starting training for races. It might be too much training too quick, but I really don't want to admit that yet. Not until I start getting the knee & hip problems back will I give in. I am on a plan and I am doing an OK job of following it (I am certainly not doing more than the plan calls for!), so I am still hopeful. I'll hope for 5 miles tomorrow morning before we go to the beach to celebrate birthdays, eat fried chicken, and bask in the sunshine!

Anyone else deal with this? Anyone have an easy fix? I am such a baby and just won't run when I feel like crap. It DOES NOT make me feel better.

Anatomy of an early morning run

I have always considered myself a morning person. Sleeping in typically makes me cranky because I don't get to tear into that To-Do list as much as I would hope to. Today I learned there is a distinction between morning people and early morning people. They are not cut from the same cloth. I think you will figure out which one I am NOT in my breakdown of the early morning run(similar to my breakdown of a long run).

Anatomy of an Early Morning Run:

The Wake-Up

Alarm goes off at 4:45 am. You have to snooze it twice to be able to convince yourself that you have to get up and run if you am going to run (not walk) across the finish line in Boston. Even though you rationalized in my brain what time to set the alarm the night before, you still have this little mental battle at o-dark-thirty. Tonight you have to submit two documents for your Master's and you have seriously procrastinated. You will have to stay after school to tutor the kiddos, as well as make lesson plans and an assessment. You know that if you don't run now, today's run does not happen. Finally, you get out of bed.

The Suit-Up

Of course, you did not have the foresight the night before to situate keys/headphones/water bottle/shoes so you can sneak out of the house without disturbing anyone. Even if you did, you are sure they would get moved around after you went to bed or the cats would haul them off in the night (they like to do that with headphones and then chew through the wires. Little angels). Once you rattle the entire house looking for my keys, you give up on the headphones and settle for lip-reading the morning news. Entertaining when you are trying creatively to make a treadmill session fun in the afternoon. Not so entertaining at 5am when you just don't give a....

Warming-Up

Already it is 5:15 am, and you know you have to be in the shower by 6:00 am if you are going to be ready in time to get to work, make copies, update the whiteboards, blah blah blah. So, warm-ups and stretching are cut short. You know this is probably where the morning workout goes to hell, but you can't get there any faster or wake-up any earlier. You have to make the training schedule!!!!! So you do a little jog without stretching, because, after all, it's only 3 miles, right? No big deal?

The Big Deal

Ok, after a quarter of a mile of jogging, you try to step it up and get your run on. At first it feels absurdly fast, even though you usually start at the same pace when you run in the afternoons. You can kinda feel your feet going off the back of the treadmill, and hustle the pace because you don't want this morning to be the first time you fall off the treadmill. Talk about ruining the rest of your day! 

Then the intestinal system wakes up. You feel sick.  Time to run to the bathroom. Get back on. Run another three quarter miles. Run to the bathroom. Continue in this pattern until it is 10 after 6, you still haven't run your full 3 miles, and know you are going to be late for work. But at least you didn't fall off the treadmill.

The Hangover

Rush through the shower process, throw your hair up wet so you look like a sick gremlin. Manage some make-up, grab a protein shake for breakfast, throw together a lunch so you don't have to eat what the kids eat, and then rush out the door. As you wait for the car to defrost because it is covered in a sheet of ice, puke in the parking lot. You didn't need that protein shake anyways.

The Deal Breaker

In the staff room, copy room, office, people ask if you are feeling OK. Which you don't because your body has found a new way to punish you for punishing it with a 5 am run. You look terrible. You feel terrible. How are you going to manage 160 high school students in remedial math? This is where you throw in the towel, ask for a sub, and take your sick butt home. After laying fetal with a gurgling belly for 3 hours, you finally can emerge for a meager lunch of toast.

Some people can run in the morning. 5 am is exhilarating for them. Me? I need time to wake up. I can run at 7, after getting up at 6:00 am to eat my toast and go through a wake-up routine. But bed to tread at 5 am? Not for me. So today I put the early morning workouts to rest, thankful that I am almost finished with my Master's and know that early morning runs just aren't necessary. I'd rather run at midnight, thank you very much.

Here's a Rodale artilcle I recently read about morning running, and it sheds more light/supports some of my concerns. Are you an early morning runner? How do you do it? Doesn't it screw up your stomach for the rest of the day? And no, I am not pregnant.

New Shoes!!!!

Today I picked up my fabulous, beautiful new shoes from overpriced running shoe store. These babies better feel like I am running on clouds, because they set a new bar for money spent on a pair of shoes. Justification: money spent on good shoes is money saved in injury prevention. The man I marry some day better believe that, or I am totally going to be screwed when it comes to buying new shoes! If I ever have to choose between new purse or shoes, I am going to be torn. I still can't believe my coach purse cost less than my Brooks. Yikes.

There is something about new gear that makes you want to get out there and run. If I didn't need an inhaler right now to do any slight physical activity, I would be logging 13 miles instead of whining about bronchitis in my blog. Heck, I can't even get excited or it hurts to breathe. No fun at all. Still, I can't wait to try out my new kicks, and I can't wait to start training for something. I feel so gross since the marathon and feel myself quickly going out of shape. I need to figure out how to get back to a 4 day a week training schedule. Sundays are good for long runs, but running during the week has turned out to be impossible with the time change. Looks like I am going to have to log miles on the treadmill and elliptical. I also tried to get started on P90X but looks like that is going to take a back seat to Reactive Airways Disease (which is apparently what I have in addition to bronchitis). Boo. Oh, how I am looking forward to the holiday breaks so I can resume my morning runs.

Looking forward to the holidays, I am investigating GPS running watch thingies. I want something to track my run and help me log my times and splits, as well as maybe support interval training. I still can't believe how expensive these little suckers are, but I am totally lusting over GPS run devices. Anyone have any input/advice? Right now I am looking into the Garmin Forerunner series, trying to keep the price under $200.

The one good thing about bronchitis? You don't need an excuse to take naps throughout the day. Doing laundry isn't so bad when you take naps between dryer cycles!

The countdown begins...

Exactly 6 weeks from today, I am supposedly running 26.2 miles. Last weekend I could only muster 7 because I felt like I was getting sick, and this weekend I am definitely sick, sleeping all day and feeling too lethargic to do anything productive. Obviously, this is the point in my training where I start freaking out.


How I am going to gain 10 more miles in training is beyond me. I am at least thankful I've gotten some good hill training in. I know I am built for hills. But am I built to go the distance? I don't think we will know until race day. The new teaching job has me working 12-14 hour days, running on barely enough sleep to function, and infinitely exhausted. This was the first week I did NOTHING for training... not even weights or elliptical.


Some people might say to just skip this race and play in safe. But $120 registration fee, a sexy firefighter wearing a tuxedo waiting for me at the finish line with a Tiffany's necklace, and free chocolate and socks along the way, well, I am not going to give all that up. I've told too many people. The expectations to finish are so high. I want to prove to myself that I can do this. That I can be an athlete. But seriously, I am starting to get a little scared about what the outcomes might be!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

I am officially registered to run the 2010 Nike Women's Marathon.

Of course, I am already behind in my training schedule due to a developing sinus infection, but still, I AM STOKED!

Too bad I couldn't run today to celebrate. Hopefully I can get ahead of this cold and put in a good  miles tomorrow.

SO EXCITED!