I guess when I said I wasn’t tapering much for Superior, I was tempting fate.

Monday: 6.6 mi, treadmill (45 @ tempo)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 7.4 mi, road
Thursday: 7 mi, road
Friday: 2.9 mi, road
Saturday: 7.7 mi, trail (2.5 @ Fort Snelling) + treadmill (5.2)
Sunday: 5.7 mi, trail (Fort Snelling)
Total: 37.3 mi

Okay, let’s talk about Saturday first. Clearly I did not run the Women Rock Half Marathon I was so excited about. Instead, on Friday evening, I discovered I had a mild UTI (oversharing? Maybe. But it’s just an illness!) and I decided the next morning not to run. I felt really stupid about it, because I had very few symptoms. I’m used to having a cold, or an upset stomach, and having symptoms that wear me out. I felt like a quitter, like I should have gutted it out and run the race, but I was worried about putting my excretory system through a half marathon when it has an infection. Well, I felt guilty about it and packed up in the afternoon for a long run at Fort Snelling. Nope. I made it 2.5 miles before I called it quits and went home, because while I mostly felt fine, I spent the entire time I was running (one loop of FANS, basically) feeling like I had to pee, and then I went to the bathroom and still felt like I had to pee. What an annoying symptom. So I went home and managed to get a run in on the treadmill (with like 3 bathroom breaks) so the day wasn’t a total loss.

I’m disappointed I didn’t get to run the half marathon, and annoyed that I wasted $65 on a race I signed up for on a whim, but I don’t feel like I made a bad decision.

Back to Monday —  I can’t remember why I ran on the treadmill. Laziness? Weather? It was so long ago. 8 whole days. A lot is going on at work right now so my brain can’t remember more than a few days prior. I did a tempo run, which I can do more effectively on the treadmill – I can keep my pace under control and slowly ramp it up and down. It just sucks because I hate running on the treadmill, although I use it as a crutch a lot.

Tuesday I planned to run and came home to find every sports bra I had was dirty. And I already wear them more than once because I’m gross and just don’t care if I smell bad, so when I say dirty I really mean it. I had recently thrown two away because the hook and eye closures were coming apart, so I had a shortened rotation. Fortunately REI’s Labor Day Sale started Friday, so I picked up 2 more on sale (along with some gels). I was annoyed because I was all ready to run and wanted to take a rest day before the half marathon, but I dealt with it.

Wednesday and Thursday were both road runs that were nothing special. I did pick up my race bib on Thursday, but that was about as exciting as it got. Friday I ran a short shakeout run around my neighborhood and then discovered the bad news.

Sunday I wanted to give Fort Snelling another try. It’s the closest state park to my house, and I don’t know why I never considered running there before. I only go there for FANS. I guess I assumed there weren’t great trails there, but that was incorrect! Instead of doing the FANS loop, I ran to Pike Island, ran around that, and then ran back to the swimming beach. I was planning to do 8.5 miles but cut it short at 5.6 miles because again, I felt like I had to pee the whole darn time. I tried to ignore it but failed, and it slowed me down quite a bit and made my run a grind. I’m running a difficult trail marathon in less than 2 weeks. I don’t need to be grinding out runs.

I was pretty proud of myself for sticking to the training plan I’d worked out – the first 6 weeks went really well, other than not being able to really do marathon pace workouts due to heat. Then life started to get in the way, and while I am bummed to not be nailing every planned workout, I also don’t mind life getting in the way. My family and my job are always going to come before running, and if that means I run lower mileage than most runners, that’s fine. It still takes me a heckofa long time to get the runs in while maintaining lower mileage, so I make do with my abilities and the amount of time I want to devote to running. It works for me for now, and if it doesn’t, I’ll figure that out when it happens.