Up's & Down's

This has been a weird week! The weather has been crazy and so have my emotions. I guess I was having the "after the marathon blues" even though I didn't run a marathon myself. The excitement of Cheryl's first marathon was awesome, but it was also mixed with dissapointment over my own dismal race. Just crazy stuff going through my head. A nice long chat with Coach Dennis on Monday and a theraputic run with some friends on Wednesday night have helped.
I have run every day since Sunday...until today, Friday's are always a rest day.

Monday - Women Can Run Clinic
It was pouring down rain and cold and I didn't want to go, but I did anyway and I am so glad I did. While we were standing outside in the rain and wind a man drove up and asked if we were the women's running group and then offered us the use of the Field House. Of course Vic said yes!! It was nice to still be able to run and not get wet. Dennis had us run for 15 minutes at easy recovery pace and then we did about 5 strides and then we ran for another 15 minutes at recovery pace. It was really great.. the astro turf felt nice and soft but not too soft and it was nice to run at such an easy pace.

Tuesday - Flyer's
It had snowed earlier in the day but by 6:00 the snow was gone so off to Magness Creek we went for our Tuesday night Flyer's clinic. Dennis had anyone who raced on Sunday just do a 4 or 5 mile easy run. Sounded good to me, but it wasn't easy. There were times when I felt good, but for the most part this was a hard run. My legs were still sore from the race?? or Dancing with the Stars?? I don't know by the top's of my thighs were sore until Wednesday. I think the run on Tuesday night helped.

Wednesday - Krooked Kreek Gang
Wednesday was actually a decent day weather wise, it made it up into the upper 50's and although it had cooled off by 6:00 it was still way better than Monday or Tuesday had been. It was Arland, Michele, Brenda and myself running. We ran over to the High School to see Rock, she was doing Hill Repeats. We ran around the track a few times and then headed back towards Michele's house. I struggled almost the whole run. Michele was smart as usual and chose a route that added on all of our miles before we got back to her house. I was glad because the whole time I was ready to quit.

Thursday- Women Can Run Clinic
Another bitterly cold windy night. Sheesh I am sick of this!!!
I stayed in my car until I spotted Terri and I wanted to say hi to her so I forced myself out of my warm car. Terri was bundled up but didn't have anything for her ears... luckily I always have a spare so I was able to hook her up and she was able to at least keep her ears nice and toasty for her run.
We were all huddled together. One thing about cold weather it brings us all closer together! LOL
At first it was just me, Bailey, Michele (who had run over from her house) and Jackie. Dennis told us to do a 2 mile warm up and then meet him at the track. We were all very whiny! Jackie hasn't felt good in weeks, and the rest of us were just plain cold and miserable. We had gotten about half way through the loop when we could hear Brenda calling us.. she had been chasing us. I was very relieved to see her! We decided to run over to the elementary school so that we wouldn't have to keep doing loops around the tennis courts. We had almost exactly 2 miles when we got back to the Track. Dennis gathered us all together and by then several more had shown up and we ended up with nine altogether.
First thing Dennis did was make us take off our Garmin's and Watches. He wanted us to just "run by feel". I don't stare at my Garmin while running or anything and mostly use it to keep up with mileage, but when Dennis speaks we listen... and obey!
He had us do a mile with 4 strides and then he had us do "touch and go's" where we ran one full lap at 75% effort and then one lap easy jog or walk. We did this twice and then he had us run 1/2 a lap at 85% effort and 1/2 a lap recovery. We did that twice or was it four times. I think it was twice, and then he had us do another mile with 4 strides... we would stride the straights and jog the curves.
He had called it "speed play" but it didn't feel much like playing to me!!
Again pretty much the whole run felt hard... even the recovery jogs.

I had a massage on Thursday... it was both heaven and hell! My hamstrings were sore, who knows why, I didn't even realize how sore they were until she started working on them, and my right one was way worse than the left. I actually cried a little bit. My back and shoulders were also a mess, she had to spend a lot of time there. I did feel much better when she was done.
I have decided though not to get a massage on the same day as speedwork. I could really feel my hamstrings while doing our strides and the 85% runs.

I have been pretty good with my nutrition this week and the one good thing I can say about all of my runs this week... I didn't have any stomach issues!! woo hoo!!

I have a 2 mile race tomorrow in Conway the Chase Race. We had a lot of fun doing it last year and that is where we really met Gary and Curtis so this is kind of our Anniversary :)
Of course it snowed most of the day and it is supposed to get really cold so who knows if we will even get to go, but as of right now we are planning on it. Guess I better get ready for bed.

Hopefully I will go back to being "Chipper Annette" soon!