A step backward, but a small one.

Monday: rest (sick)
Tuesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 134 bpm
Wednesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill (including 15 min @ 15% incline), 135 bpm
Thursday: rest (sick)
Friday: 2.5 mi, treadmill, 133 bpm (quit early)
Saturday: 6.4 mi, trail (Hartley), 139 bpm
Sunday: 12.3 mi, road, 136 bpm
Total: 30.7 mi

I wanted to be at 33 miles this week, so I was three miles low, but considering I wasn’t feeling well half the week, I am surprised I still made 30 miles. I wasn’t really sick sick. I actually think most of my issues stemmed from dehydration/uneven hydration. I drink a decent amount of water, but I am not hydrating evenly throughout the day. I made some small changes in my diet, cutting down to one (12 oz) cup of coffee a day and eating a yogurt (full-fat Greek) every day. I still eat like crap, but now slightly less like crap. For now.

Friday I was hoping to do a much longer run, but my heart rate wasn’t cooperating. It was elevated even at lower paces than I normally run, and I was tired and had a headache, so I quit early. I was just running on the treadmill, so I didn’t feel badly about quitting.

Saturday I finally got outside again. It was probably warm enough to go out earlier in the week, but I had wanted to stick close to home, plus I didn’t feel the sidewalks were safe enough for road running at night. I did a Root Cellar > Fisherman > Guardrail lollipop loop at Hartley Saturday afternoon. It started out great, I was feeling fantastic and able to keep my heart rate under control. Then I hit the hills of Guardrail and started having trouble with my heart rate. All the treadmill training I’ve been doing lately has taken its toll. It didn’t help that the snow was soft, so every time I stepped even slightly off the narrow portion of the trail that was packed, I was crunching through the snow. It was jarring and also resulted in a loss of energy due to the inelastic collision between my foot and the snow, which made me have to work harder.

Saturday I also went home after running and bought a car. It has no power steering, is leaking radiator fluid, the heater recently took to intermittently working, and it takes several tries to get it started, but I finally reached my limit when my car nearly overheated in the three miles it took to drive from my house to Hartley, even after adding radiator fluid only a few days earlier. It’s not an expense I wanted to have, but there was no reason to throw more money at a ’99 Pontiac with a rusted-out chassis and large chunks of bumper missing. I ate a granola bar after running and showering, but I probably should have had something more substantial as I started to get a little desperate for food at the dealer.

Sunday I did 12 miles on the road. I haven’t replaced my shoe chains yet, and it was quite an adventure. I was concerned about pulling a muscle as the sidewalks were very icy and I slipped several times. I didn’t fall, but I did wrench myself into some awkward positions trying to stay upright. The camber of the sidewalks, especially as I ran over the ends of driveways, made it extremely dangerous, as a slip would have sent me into oncoming traffic. Exciting! I ate one energy bar during the run and finished almost an entire water bottle, thanks to my new attentiveness to hydration. It snowed the whole time, which was both nice (beautiful, I live in a snow globe, la la la) and crappy (slippery, soaking gloves made my hands cold).

This upcoming week is a cutback week, as I’m going on vacation and don’t want to do a long run. We are celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday, and I don’t want to take 3-4 hours for a long run in the middle of a family reunion. We’ll be in Florida so I won’t be used to the heat/humidity (although it won’t be too warm, I really mean that relatively), so it’s best to just keep to some short/mid-length runs. And if I don’t run, I don’t run, although I really do want to take maximum advantage of the opportunity to run outdoors in just a t-shirt and shorts!