Believe to Achieve

Zombie Day.  In and out of conciousness.  Finally decided to open all curtains (2pm) and try to be as normal as possible until night time.  Head foggy.  Muscles twitching.  Life an adventure!! 

Ripped myself from my bed for a 6:47am start.  Foggy-brained and weak I left my house.  Every step felt easier and easier.  Thankful for music in my ears (sure missed it in my race Friday, not doing that again).  First uphill mile 8:43.  Felt real nice.  Last mile I was tired of my back pain that started acting up on the down hill.  This run is half up half down, in that order.  So....I pushed thru the pain and ran a 6:40 for the last mile, faster than any mile at the race Friday.  I have to laugh.  Went to pool with kids to coach 6 and unders and swam about 15 laps afterwards.  I even put in a couple butterflies but took it easy and focused on form and not killing back.  Mostly did breast stroke.  Tried to push it there.  I am trying to get more accurate stroking after teaching my kids how to do it.  Swimming can get your heart a pumpin'.  Went home and pigged out,  sooooo hungry.  Back pain a real issue right now from my lower back to my feet.  OUCH!!!!   Avg pace for 8.23  = 8:13

Zombie for a day.  Completely wasted and honery.  No one would want to be by me today, sorry for my little family.  My shift last night was TIRING.  8 babies in 6 hours!!!  No down time.  Hard to relax and fall asleep.  Day off from running a wise thing for me to do. 

Again ripped myself out of bed.  Really still quite fatigued.  Legs, hamstrings, calves shot.  Lower back acting up right after runs.  Feet go numb and tingling, hamstrings ache along with calves.  Ran up to the canal and over to upper PG then down to my house.  6.85 miles at 8:22 pace.  Last mile picked it up just because:  6:38.  Got to do tempos of at least 4 - 6 miles some day.  Plan to run long and easy tomorrow, if those two words can be in the same sentence.  Big Gold swim meet Saturday am until 1pm so need to get it done.  I also work Thursday night so no other option.  Not doing that night run thing again until it cools down more, like September. 

Oh don't be fooled this was not a run but a spur of the moment bike ride after fighting fatigue all morning, I got on my bike and started pedaling at an easy pace.  Did a similar loop to the one Melanie and I did a month and a half ago.  It was 1120am when I started and I never felt hot, the breeze while riding was refreshing the whole way.   Was quite a hilly loop so got some mean bike hills in going at the pace of a turtle for sure.  The downhills had wicked head winds but ahhhh it felt so good to just ride the hills with NO effort.  Back really began aching around mile 14 so toughed it out a lot with the spasms.  Did a lot of standing up riding to help ease the ache.  Got home and iced my back.  This was all about relaxing, minus the major uphill climbs and enjoying the scenery.  It was quite breathtaking even at midday.  Not even a near folly which during the day traffic is usually daunting.  Pace 5:04 for 22 miles.  I loved this work out/ easy cross train day :  D     My back may have more complaints tomorrow however.  Off to work tonight too.  No run tomorrow.  And a 5 am short run Saturday morning.  I am taking it easy to avoid chronic fatigue.

Couldn't get out of bed at 445am as planned to try and fit in a 16 before Gold swim meet at 8am in Spanish Fork for two of my daughters.  Really wanted to roll back over and sleep because the whole night was BAD sleep.  Managed to roll out at 524am.  Slowly got dressed and dreadingly walked down the stairs.  Decided to do a mini Tempo workout.  Not a great day to do it feeling fatigued but forced myself.  Did a 1.52 mile warmup (I use the course tool to map my run around a good 4.5 mile loop).  Ran three at marathon pace, is that the same as tempo?  I am forgetting here.  Anyway, ran the first 3 in 21:08 (7:22, 6:45, 6:59), first mile late after re-calculations on course tool by probably 3 seconds  faster really, second mile 3 seconds slower then.  Ran back to house (.16 miles), took a sip on my gatorade set at my starting point and began again with the 1.5 mile run then 3 at marathon pace.  Ran pretty much the exact same speed, weird at 21:09 (7:23, 6:45, 6:59).  The last mile in each is significantly uphill.  Only slight downhill on mile one when I am saying to myself "why am I doing this?"  I awaken by mile two then feel very sleepy on mile three and the hill kills me.  I plan on re-running this when I actually feel good, adding two more sets.  First one then a few weeks later the forth set.  That will be all I can do for speed except a couple of 200s and 400s on the track for a nice post easy run speed check.  16 miler has moved to Monday morning.  Stupid me picked up a first half shift for a desperate coworker tonight :  (       So at 1 am I plan on Z-ing it to the MAX.   My oldest daughter Courtney turns 11 tomorrow.  I had her on a Sunday 11 years ago.  Such a magical moment :  D    We are going to Lagoon on Wednesday to celebrate  :  DDDDDDD