July is Behind Us

Monday was a 7 mile easy run, sadly it ended up being run on the treadmill due to the heat. I dread running on the treadmill, but when the weather is hitting 30 degrees the treadmill is the only option. To help me make my run more challenging and less boring I always set the treadmill for hills. I was aiming for a 7 mile run in 57 minutes. I ended up doing a 7 mile run in 54:42 with a pace of 7’42”/mile. I was so pleased with this run. However, treadmill runs for me always seem to go a little faster than outdoor runs.

Tuesday was TRX and this marked my last TRX class until after my marathon. I really do enjoy TRX but I also love sleep. I had to make a choice. I sat down and look at my schedule really closely. If I stuck with TRX through marathon training I would only get one sleep in day a week. That would be Sunday. If I cut out TRX and focused on Nike Training Club I could sleep until 6:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. I call sleeping until 6:30 sleeping in now that is crazy. I choose to focus on Nike Training Club instead of doing both TRX and Nike Training Club. I am confident with my decision and I believe this will help me train better because I am not stretching myself so thin.

Wednesday marked the first day of August also 74 days from race day. I got a little bit panicky on Wednesday. I had my first track workout and still had no idea what track I was going to use and I was freaking out because I am not a sprinter. I am a distance runner. Even when I swam to do sprints it killed me but I sucked it up. I talked to a few co-workers and found a really great track to run on. Much to my surprise I LOVED the sprints. They were exactly what I needed. They were not as fast as I wanted them to be but I was still very pleased with them. When I was getting ready for bed that night I noticed that I had a hard time setting my toe down on the bed. I didn’t think much of it and went to sleep.

Nike recently released the Find Greatness campaign. One way I find greatness is by conquering my fears. I used to hate doing this. I preferred to stick to what I was good at like many people. I feel like I broke through a mental wall on Wednesday by doing a track workout. I was impressed with myself and what I have accomplished through this training. 

Nike Women and Marie Purvis (Nike Get Fit) have really helped me come along way.

Thursday was Nike Training Club it was Get Lean Advanced Adrenaline Hit I am always down for a good Nike Training Club. My body felt so much better that I wasn’t forcing a working in the morning and one at lunch. I was starting to find I was fatigued all the time. I was starting to feel sick and lacking energy. It was affecting not only my training but my personal life. Believe me it is not fun when you come home and all you want to do is sleep. All you think about is sleep. I think cutting out that extra workout was beneficial to me.  I was still struggling with my big toe during my workout, it hurt so much with every movement and wasn’t really sure what was going on. I got home from work and removed the nail polish on it, to find that I had a blood blister under my toe!! I contact my boyfriend’s mom, she is a nurse and I knew she would know what to do. She told me if I wanted to continue to run on it I needed to get rid of the pressure. I had Mike heat up a needle and he put a hole in my toe. Amazingly, it didn’t hurt! I felt so much better afterwards. I am likely going to lose my toe nail but I guess we have to lose something along the way in our training.

Friday was a 5 mile run. This run was in the rain. I woke up and looked outside and it was pouring rain. I debated just running on the treadmill. I told myself NO. You have no idea what the conditions in San Fran are going to be like. What are you going to do pull out because it is raining? No you are going to run! You are going to put on your running shoes, put on your Nike Vapor coat and run. 

I think Calgary is the only city in the world that can go from 30 the day before to 9 degrees the next day. It was so cold and wet I wanted to call it quits, however, I was 3 miles out and had to get home, what better way but to run back. The run felt great and I did it in 44:01 with a pace of 8’08”/mile. I was shocked that I made myself take the run outside in the cold rain. I was happy that I did it after.

Saturday morning I found myself in the unfamiliar place of Edmonton, Alberta. The night before my boyfriend and I were on an evening stroll and I said I would like to get away. We drove to Edmonton Friday night and arrived at our hotel around 12:30 in the morning. Saturday morning I woke up and was unprepared for my run. I didn’t bring enough food so I ate an orange in my bag and had some dry cereal Mike had packed. I had no protein and knew this was not going to be a good run. It was 7:30 am and the temp was already getting close to 19 degrees. I have never lived in Edmonton and I have only visited a few short times. I decided to head to the river and stick as close to it as possible. 4 miles in my run was going amazing, but then I got lost. I somehow ended up on this gravel road trail with no idea how to get back to the road and I was quickly running out of water. Every time I stopped to get my baring I would get attacked my mosquitoes so I decided it would just be better if I kept running. I finally found these police officers on bikes and they rode ahead of me until I was back at the trail I was looking for. By this time my mouth was so dry and I was no longer sweating. I was getting dizzy and I knew I had no other choice but to find water. I stopped a lady who was rollerblading along the trail I was running on and asked her if she knew where a fountain was; however, my words were not coming out right as my mouth was so dry. She took my camelback and brought me back water. About a mile from where I was there was a water fountain and I was so happy to have water again. I waited another few minutes to let the water settle and continued back. The run back was a lot harder due to dehydration so I took it a little slower than normal. I had never felt so happy to be done a race. When I was finally finished I realized how important hydration is to having successful runs. I did manage to do the half marathon distance in 1:58:52, slower than I would have liked but I will do better on Sunday when I do 15 miles. 

Happy Training.