I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

Forgot to make a daycare reservation - crap. So, I set the alarm for an early run, but then figured I would call. If they had room I'd go back to sleep and do my run at the gym and get to do my swim class. I missed it last week! Well, they had room. So, I got my cake and ate it too! Except, then I got there. 

I usually only make a reservation for 9, because 10 never fills up and I just add it on when I drop the kids off. Except today 10 was full :( I could only do the one hour and this meant I would miss swim class. CRAP! Really?!? If I was only going to get to run for an hour I would've done it early this morning and not paid for daycare to run on the TM. Poop. Oh well. On the way out I told my swim teacher why I wasn't coming and she said she would be swimming tomorrow so I could workout with her. Awesome. Great compromise.

I did 6 miles on the TM in 49:30 AP: 8:15 - miles until 4.25 were all at 8:20 .5% incline. Then until mile 5 I went 8:13. Final mile started at 7:57 @ 5.5 went to 7:47 then progressive every .05 on the last quarter to the finish to top out at 7:19mm. Cooled down walking for 3 minutes.

Came home and did the shred L3, since I'll be missing weights tomorrow so I can swim. Lots of planks on that one, so I didn't do my 60/60/60 planks and push-ups at the end. I'll have to find a way to throw them in tomorrow.

Sure miss my morning running partner. So much easier to get out and run with someone else.

Bacon day messed up all my plans. Yes, bacon day. My husband and his co-workers frequently do bacon day. They buy POUNDS of butcher bacon and bring it to our house (closest to work) and cook it up for lunch - and they (all 5 or 6 of them) eat it all. Crazy I tell you! So, I played hostess to a smokey bacon filled house of computer nerds instead of getting a nap and reading my book this afternoon. Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow.

6 on the TM at the gym. Took 30 seconds longer than yesterday. TT: 50:05, AP: 8:20. Started at 8:27 - lungs feel tight from this nice cold I'm fighting, so I wanted to keep it easier. At 3.5 miles went to 8:20, then at 5 miles did MP (7:53) until 5.5 then 7:47 till the last quarter and went progressive to finish at 7:03mm.

Went to the pool and swam with the Masters swim coach. Good times. Warm-up, pulls, kicks, then I did 3X50's easy, med, fast (1:00, :55, :50) repeated twice. 400M to cool down then daycare time was up.

Good workout for a Tuesday. Can't wait to swim again tomorrow. There is something just relaxing about floating along in the water. I'd like to get out early tomorrow to run, but since I didn't get my nap today I might be too tired :)

Every excuse in the book was with me this morning. I really just wanted to grab my book and hit the elliptical. But, then I realized my tight, achy ankle, upset stomach, sore throat, achy muscles, head ache and overall fatigue were just those little gremlins telling me that I can't do what I want to do. I am stronger than they are, I am.

Decided to give myself a little break and do only 15 repeats instead of 20. This would give me 6 miles (with a cool down) and not pushing to 7. I'd still do my speed workout and give my body a little break as well. I am truly getting sick, or am sick, but I will fight this thing tooth and nail! My ankle hurts as well and now has a nice purple bruise the length of the outside of my foot (about 5 inches around the metatarsal area, just above the 'fat pad' line to the sole of the foot), but it was the inside part of the ankle that felt tight this morning. Blech, I'm SO done with all of this!!

6 miles on the TM - 10 min warm-up at 8:34; 1 min on (6:11 -9.7mph)/ 1 min off (9:31 -6.3mph) repeated 15X (30 min). I had about 7 min of cool down afterward that I ran progressive starting at 8:57 and finishing at 8:00. TT: 47:06 AP: 7:50. My AP before the cool down was 7:43, but I tell you - that last sprint just about killed me. I was seriously dizzy and exhausted. I was done and had to talk myself into each and every one of the last 5 sprints! I was SO glad it was done. I needed a nice, easy cool down.

Finished off with Masters swim class. After warm-up did 50's progressive (1:00, :55, :50) - 3 sets; 2 of my 50 second laps I was able to hit in 48! Then we did pulls 200's - my goal was 3:30, did a 3:45 and 3:38. Not too shabby - especially today! Then I worked on some bilateral breathing drills and then daycare time was up and I was out of there.

I'm exhausted today. Just exhausted. Falling asleep typing this, but have a little buddy here waiting for me to play a game with him. Maybe I'll convince him to take a nap with me for the next game :)

Oh, and yes - the house still smells like bacon.

Keepin' it even with the 6's this week. Have to volunteer at school this morning, so I drug myself out of bed and did the TM early. I would've just gone outside, but it was too risky - I might have spent an hour just trying to run a 1/2 mile with this crazy wind!! Plus, I'm a pansy :)

Just wanted to kind of take it easy on the TM today, especially after yesterday's exhaustion. So, I did 8:27 pace (.5% incline) for 5 miles, then the last mile was AP of 7:40. Normal start at 7:57, at 1/2 mile went to 7:47, then progressive the last quarter. TT: 50:10 AP: 8:22.

Came home, got kids off then did the shred L2 and 60/60/60 planks 3X with 20 pushups between sets.

A little aleve and some sleep helped a bit with the sick/sore issues. But, then again any excuse for an afternoon nap is good in my book!

No wind + no daycare reservation = early morning outside run.

6.5 miles on the new route I 'discovered' with QP last week. AP on the Garmin is 9:04, but I don't believe it. Not because I'm some sort of crazy pace calculating machine (ha!), but because I forced it to start before satellites were found and so it calculated the time until it hit a mile, but it didn't start recording distance until I was about a 1/4 mile away from home - 1st mile split was over a 10:30. Then 2 8:30's and 2 9:00ish and then another 8:30 and a 1/2 mile finisher at low 8:00. I guess that is what I get for being impatient.

Had a reservation for 10 and I wanted to do spinning, but since class was over then figured I'd just do the bike by myself and read (yes, read while I spin - go on, make the jokes. Especially Becca! Seeing as we always did), but you can't blame me too much. Ipod was broken and I'm in the middle of The Hunger Games. A good compromise of time if you ask me!

Said hello to Kelli, Scott and Wendy; filled up my water bottle; started walking toward the track to the corner where they have banished the ONE spin bike they let you use outside of the spin room (all the rest are 'normal' bikes with the big seats and electronic displays with NO clips). Well, right in front of me (literally like 2 feet) is a lady walking the same direction - then I notice the spin shoes in her hands. AACCKKK!! She's going to get the bike first :( I'm so mad, I ponder what the ramifications would be if I quickly out sprinted her the last 20 feet to the bike and yelled "ha! I win you lose!" then jump on the bike and start pedaling like I was getting the heck out of there :) I tried to be a little nicer when we got there and I asked if she was going to use the bike and she responded positively. She said she was only going to be 10-15 minutes, so I walk away defeated. Sit on the mats (where normal people go to stretch out and do ab work) and open my book and read.

Yup. I just sat and read until she was done. Paid for daycare today for 30 of my 75 minutes for me to just read. Nice. I guess I should've done the elliptical or even started the workout with Kelli, but like my disclaimer before - I'm in the middle of a good book :) Plus, I only had spin shoes and crocs. Not quite good 'workout' shoes.

Finally got on the bike and did 45 minutes - while I read. Consistent, even effort. I need to spin more. Grabbed the kiddos 1 minute before closing and I was done for the day.

I'm dreading my 13 miles in the dark and all alone tomorrow....

Oh my heck. Seriously. Worst run of, dare I say, my life? I don't know what unholy concoction of events (or lack there of ) combined forces against me today, all I know is that there is one AMAZING run out on my horizon. Opposition in all things, right?

Started out well enough. Dragging butt after too few hours of sleep, bundling up for what I knew would be a VERY cold, dark, snowy run. 6:00AM departure from home with nothing in my stomach, but some water. This isn't unusual for me. I did pack a gu just in case I felt like I needed it - ha!

Nothing but fresh footprints in a light dusting of snow and a downhill headwind (which made me excited to run home, because we NEVER get the downhill headwind!), I wasn't the first to put footprints in the snow, which surprised me, but it was nice to know I wasn't the only crazy out this morning.

About mile 4 or 5 was when it started to hit the fan. Stomach just felt nauseated, crampy and blech. Didn't know if I should run to the bathroom or just barf. Figured I'd take the short loop around the lake that I'd planned then stop at the bakery and see what came of it. I was bonking hard and considered throwing back the gu, but my stomach was so upset I didn't want to risk throwing up. I've done enough of that during my pregnancies and I ABHOR throwing up (no, no chance I'm pregnant either - so don't go there!!) so I avoided the gu, besides no water to wash it down with would just make me gag. 

Got to the bakery and it as well as the public restroom Kelli showed me last week were closed. Oh thank Heaven for 7-11! A new one opened just last weekish about 3/4 mile up the road. Although I felt like I'd pushed as much as I could to just get here, I figured I had no choice, but to push ahead. After the stop (and a short warm-up -ahhhh!) I hit the road and felt a bit better.

It didn't last long. By the time I'd gone just 1 mile more and gotten back to my water bottle I'd dropped on my way out (it was 75% frozen and I had to squeeze water through the ice at the top just to drink it.) I was done. I was at 10.10 miles - that was enough to hit my 40 for the week. I didn't want to go on. I only had 3 miles-ish to home, but was defeated and feeling worse every step. I got a drink (which made me gag and almost throw up) and someone passed me running. My pride renewed me. I will go on!

At 10.28 miles I stopped, got out the phone and called Craig. I threw in the towel. Only one other time in my running career have I made the choice to call Craig and have him pick me up and not finish a run. I guess this would be a DNF for me. I told him I was sick and done and to come get me. That short call almost made me get frost bite on my fingers, because I didn't have my glove on - SO cold!! Hung up and decided to just run until I met him. If I walked I'd just get cold, besides, I had to even out my miles - can't leave it at 10.28 :)

At 10.91 I had a flash back of SGM. No waring, just a nice heave from my stomach. Went to the side of the road and puked my guts out. Thankfully, I was on a busy road out here so everyone got to see the crazy lady that not only thinks it's okay to run a gazillion miles, but do it in the snow and the cold pay for her miscalculation and puke. Yeah, I'm sure they had a good nod thinking: "yup, that's why I don't run!" No inspiration coming from me today. I didn't want to wipe my mouth with my gloves, because I didn't know how much longer I'd be in the cold . Just a nice spitting game until I could muster enough to stand up without a big spit string. Running is pretty, isn't it? :)

I took off running again - what else is a girl to do? Thankfully, I then spotted Craig! As I passed the front bumper of the car the garmin ticked to 11.00 - perfect. Couldn't have done it better if I'd tried. Told him he'd just missed the show, he was pretty upset about missing another puke session! Went home, showered and headed off to the ward Christmas party. All the food there just made things worse. Even the cinnamon rolls I'd spent hours making threatened my stomach with revenge if I even thought about putting them to my lips. I had some water and a few bites of fruit. Now, I have only 20 minutes until I can put baby down to bed, pick up my daughter and cross my fingers the older kids don't destroy the house while I sleep for one hour. That is all I have until I have to jet off to yet another commitment today. Maybe by 9:00 things will settle down.

So, this was an epic fail, but all I can hope for is that somehow, my body realizes that this can make it stronger. One of those runs to put in the bank and hope to heaven that it was really worth it. When I get that good run, it will be worth it. The bright spot of the morning was that I got to see a SPECTACULAR sunrise, that I didn't mind stopping for a minute to take a picture and enjoy this morning. Maybe that is what made it all worth it!

The 'small' mountain you can see is the point of the mountain, you can't see Timp behind it, because I've got a crappy camera and it was enveloped in the clouds with just the peaks poking through. It really was beautiful!!! Glad I picked up my head enough that last mile to see and enjoy it.

AP: 9:17 splits: 8:57, 8:53, 9:17, 8:48 (last good mile), 9:00, 9:24, 9:15, 9:25, 9:25, 9:54, 9:44 (I really thought I was running about an 11:00mm pace!!).