I am falling behind!
In my blog writing that is, not my training. My training is actually still going pretty good!
We hope.
Week 18
I ran by myself on Tuesday due to Rhi still being sick and managed a whopping 6.5km.
It was great!
I used the 10k interval training app, regardless of my new adversity to running with headphones, and the three 15minute running intervals took me almost the entire way around the familiar Torrens track.
I hadn't run as far as I wanted to, but I was exhausted and had pushed pace so I felt like I had achieved something.
Plus, I am becoming quite dependant on having Rhi by my side so running by myself is somewhat of an achievement in itself.
It makes all the difference when you can breath mumbly chatty things to each other to make the miles go quicker.
Rhi decided she wasn't sick any more and so I thought I would have another go at being sniffly on Wednesday and Thursday, and therefore missed my second week of cross-training.
This is such a bad time of the year for me and my poor sinuses.
It also appears to be a bad time for cross-training. I feel so guilty.
On Friday I decided I was well enough to have another go at a run with Rhi, and we both managed to successfully make it in the city to run together for the first time in what seemed like forever.
We decided we would run without the interval trainer and try to run the full 10km which could be accomplished by completing the full Torrens ring route followed by a smaller ring route over the same area.
Looking back now, I don't even know what possessed us to try it, but being a few weeks out from the 10k race, we were both determined to see how we would go.
We have had to make some changes to the route we run in the morning due to it already being so much darker.
Instead of cutting through the university to get down to the river, we followed the main roads around and jump on the track from Frome St. This actually makes it easier to complete the 10k route so after a quick warm-up and stretch, we got into it.
Even though it was dark when we started running, I underestimated how slowly we might make it around the track.
By the time we had gotten back around to the university, it was already 7.50am and we both start work at 8.30am so we needed to make a decision quick as to what we were going to do.
Instead of completing another loop around behind the zoo, we decided we would do an even smaller loop to get us up and over the 8km mark and still have time to get back to the office for work.
This bought us up to a total of 8.5km.
I couldn't believe it.
8.5km and we only stopped because we had run out of time.
We were so pumped we felt we could have done the entire 10km.
Rhi was bummed that we didn't get to complete it but I couldn't believe that we were actually in a physical condition to complete it.
Just, wow.
Rhi was adamant that we try for a Hike on Saturday since we hadn't gone for one in so long.
This conveniently meant that we also missed out on poor Kayla Itsines full body workout circuit. Sorry, not sorry.
It was a perfect opportunity to see how our fitness would fair us on the Uraidla hike, so I met Rhi up the hills bright and early Saturday morning before the sun had even risen.
We both agreed that even though we had to get up at that time most days during the week for training, there is something sacrilegious about being awake so early on a Saturday morning.
But the hike was great!
And we didn't even have Chris as the usual pack mule!
It is obvious where our fitness has improved because of not only how much further we can push ourselves but also how much quicker we recover.
Even the steepest bits of the hike seemed to be over so much quicker, regardless of apparent imminent death the entire through the track.
Because of such a crazy week out of routine, and the fact that the weekend was actually a long weekend, we decided that we would take Sunday as a rest day and then do our long run on the Monday instead.
Week 19
Monday morning was a public holiday and another day that ought to be spent in bed until the sun is well streaming through your window.
Instead, we were both on our way into the city before the sun even because peaking over the Adelaide Hills. This must be what insanity feels like.
Regardless of my strong feelings for wanting to still be in bed, there is something also really peaceful about coming into the office on a day when you shouldn't. Like, holy hell, I could work for 8 hrs straight and not a single person would interrupt me. I clearly need to get a life.
We headed out.
I had already mapped the route the week before so I knew where we were supposed to run to get our full 10km.
And this time, we didn't have a time schedule to run by.
We were going to do it, regardless of how long it took.
It it was a beautiful morning even if the sun wasn't up yet.
We slowly made our way behind the zoo and even though we were doing the same track we always did, because I knew the distance ahead of us, the run felt like it was taking 3 times as long.
We made it around the larger ring route in pretty good time regardless of the fact that I kept annoyingly pushing pace without even realising it until I asked Rhi what our pace was and we realised that I was pushing us a minute faster than what we usually run.
We had just started on the smaller ring route I had mapped out when Rhi announced that we were already at 9 kilometres.
At first I was thinking "that can't be right", but then I thought maybe because we had been a little off the track here-and-there, that maybe this is right and just maybe we actually we're going to complete the 10K before the end of the route that I had mapped out.
We were both absolutely ecstatic because we are already made it past the 9km mark which was so much further than we had ever run before and so we carried on easily around the track knowing that we will probably only going to make it halfway around the ring around that we were supposed run for the 10k.
Sure enough, we had just gotten to the bridge behind the zoo when Rhi started yelling that we had made it. We sprinted to the other side of the bridge and then stopped, puffing and laughing, smiling like Cheshire's, both of us so happy that we had actually made it.
I pulled ut my phone to stop the run tracker and stopped in my tracks.
According to MapMyFitness, we had only run 9kms.
A perfect, convenient, exact 1km less than what we thought. What?!
I told Rhi and immediately her face fell. We both became very quickly in denial of this information. Surely my app is wrong. Surely my GPS stuffed up. Maybe Rhi's GPS stuffed up.
At this point we had already been walking for about a minute and I am sure we were both thinking we can probably run again for another kilometre but with slowly made our way back to the office with the stubborn mindset that we already actually run the 10km.
We got back to the office and Rhi immediately jumped on Map-O-Metre to see what miles we had actually run.
And sure enough the track we had run was only 9km. 9km exactly.
We were both so disappointed, but at the same time, I was still ecstatic of the fact that we could even run 9 km and that we could have easily kept going to make that final mysterious kilometre.
When we put our phones together to compare the tracks, we realised that Rhi's (iPhone) GPS had gone a little bit spastic when it lost reception and had jumped all over the place at some points which is where the extra kms came from. Never trust an iPhone guys.
So the run was actually pretty good.
Even though on more than one occasion, I had to rescue Rhi from the enormous hanging spider webs that are were falling from the gum trees around the track, which in that moment, even though I thought I was being gallant and thoughtful, most likely looked like I was trying to wrestle her across the footpath in a mad scramble to get away from those disgusting hanging threads of death.
Back to work on Tuesday and we were supposed to do cross training because we had already run on Monday.
I must have been tired, not only from still recovering from sinus attacks, but from running the extra miles because I slept in and missed my morning opportunity to work out.
Of course that meant, regardless of my pure intensions, I also didn't manage to fit in any time to do the work out that night and I didn't work out on Wednesday or Thursday because my sinuses decided that I was no longer allowed to breathe like a normal human and so again I was benched until Friday morning.
Rhi was interstate on Friday morning, and I had intended to run by myself in the city until I slept in. Again. Not cool, man. Work with me here.
Then, when I woke up on Saturday morning with all intentions of doing a short run, followed by a long run on Sunday, I realised rather quickly that I must have done something to my back while I was asleep because I could barely walk when I got out of bed.
I was so annoyed. And disappointed. And I still felt sick. And I felt maybe I was sabotaging myself.
I found myself in a moment of questioning as to whether all these ailments were actually genuine or if I was just putting my training off.
What is worse, is that I am completely capable at bringing myself down if I have failed on some small part of my training without the constant barrage of questions I am also getting from my peers.
Every time somebody encouragingly asks me how my training is going, or how many miles I have run that morning, I am reminded that I failed to meet my commitment, and the resulting look of "oh you have finally given up" that I have to see on that persons face is just another kick in the gut.
I understand the innocence of the encouragement, and I love that there are others motivated by what we are doing and excited by our feats of strength, but it would be nice if everyone could remember that I already have really high expectations of myself without other people relaying their judgemental comments because that is not motivating to me in any way.
Rant over.
So, I didn't work out for the entire rest of the week, but I did manage to book in an appointment on the Friday morning for my first remedial massage.
I have read all over the internet that I should get regular massages or at least I should see some kind of physio to ensure that I'm doing everything right by my body and that I can prevent any kind of injury.
And being at this race is so important to me and I'm so new to it I figure it can't hurt at least have some professional advice.
Turns out we spoke for quite a long time and I received only a very short time of actual therapy on my Friday appointment. Which is what I expected, I suppose.
We talking about the type of therapy I can get, what kind of training and stretching I had been doing and the areas that I feel like I've been having some trouble with.
I am not sure if I have mentioned it in my posts before, but I have been experiencing some issues with really tight calf muscles on the inside of both legs.
I figured it was some kind of shin splints, but it felt like it was in the muscle rather than on the bone like typical shin splints so I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be stretching this somehow.
Immediately the therapist, Rob, understood exactly what I was talking about and after a quick massage along my calves to see if he could find the stiffness, he told me but I'm probably pronating to the point where I'm actually tearing the muscle on the edge of the bone. Eep.
He wanted to have a few massage sessions with me first to see if he could loosen up my calf muscles, because the tightness of my calf muscle may be pulling at the edge of the bone resulting in the pain I was feeling.
He also advised that if these sessions didn't fix the issue, I may need to see a podiatrist to figure out how to manage the way my feet are pronating. I was aware that this could turn into an expensive exercise.
Even though he was talking about possible injuries, I was actually really relieved that the pain I have been feeling was legitimate, and I was relieved that I had spoken to a professional so early on.
There would be nothing worse than ignorantly pushing through the pain only to injure myself a short time out from the marathon.
Even though Rob had only given my about 15mins of actual massage on my legs, the next morning I was a little bit tender and consequently feeling a little bit nervous for my next full appointment.
This shit is supposed to be painful. Exciting? Cant wait. Freak.
