This past week turned out ot be a lot like the week before in terms of energy and workout performance. I hope that this downturn turns out to be temporary and that my body adjusts to the heat and humidity of the South Carolina summer. I also hope that when school ends for the year, my body bounces back, recovers well and I can put my training to good use.
In the meantime, I plan to focus next week on making sure that I have adequate sleep (perhaps even go to bed half an hour earlier), drink enough water, and start the fan going in my classroom during bus holding so that the heat in the building does not drain me as much as it has been. (The district turns off the AC at 2pm, 2 hours before all students leave and before teachers can leave.)
Monday 50 minutes with 3 x 30 second hard intervals near the end
My legs felt pretty heavy and tired at the start. It took a little while for them to warm up, about a mile or so. After that, the run felt normal. The intervals, on the other hand, felt awesome! I really enjoyed them even if I did miscalculate and start them a bit too soon.
Tuesday tempo intervals
Unfortunately, in an effort to get to school on time, state testing and all, all I had time to write down was the mileage. By the time I got back to my running log to write down some narrative details, I could not remember much if anything about the run. I think I felt strong on the intervals. I don’t remember anything standing out. I did have to cut 5 minutes off the cool down time so that I could make it to school on time. I really need to get these runs started sooner.
Wednesday strength training
Towards the end of Tuesday, I developed a throbbing headache behind my left eye. With state testing both at school and for my homebound student, I ended up collapsing on the couch when I got home. I meant to just rest and maybe close my eyes for a minute. I slept for two hours, waking up to Mom’s call just in time for me to go back upstairs and crawl back in bed. I knew that I would be worthless in the morning, the headache persisted just a little in the morning once I woke up, so I ended up scrapping the strength training workout. I know this was the right decision, I just wish that I didn’t have to scrap so many workouts.
Thursday 45 minutes easy
It was hard to get started on the run. My legs still felt heavy and tired. I told myself that I would warm up eventually and I did. Most of the run I felt good.
Friday strength training
We were going to try for attempt number two. Unfortunately, late Thursday night I developed the beginnings of a sore throat which appeared in full force Friday morning. I knew the best thing to do would be to sleep more and try to rest. I honestly wondered if I would be able to run the half and the extra miles afterwards on Sunday.
I drank copious amounts of fluid Friday and chilled on the couch when I got home from work. The rest seems to have done the trick because the sore throat abated by Saturday morning.
Saturday Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon
Although I did not have anything near the performance I wanted on Saturday, I can see as I look back that last week, for some reason, was a pretty rough week. I hope that the measures I mentioned earlier help in the coming weeks so that I can continue to train well.