This week started off with one thing that I didn't have the week before.
Motivation. Hallelujah!
Out of nowhere, I had somehow regained my determination to look after myself and take my training seriously again.
I was drinking water. I kept up with my training plan - even when that meant that I had to do my 5.5km training run on a freaking treadmill and I foam rolled every night. Dedicated, see?
I don't know if I have really gone into depth with my relationship with foam rolling, but in a nutshell, we don't get along.
I mostly believe this is because I weigh a lot.
Like.... a lot more than most people (men included). I am HEAVY. And I have no core or upper body strength to speak of and you generally require both of these to get a good foam rolling workout. I cannot even lift my own body weight, so this makes foam rolling techniques a fairly good workout on it's own.
So this is what I told myself: "Yo, Sam, you sexy thing you! You know that tubular foamy thing that you have been hiding in your closet and pretending to ignore for the last...hmmm, since you bought it? Maybe you should just fucking do it and get some core and upper body strength while you're at it because then we are all winning right?!"
Yeah, I definitely talk to myself and narrate my life like I am on the Truman Show. Whatever.
So this week has been dubbed "foam roll every night before I go to bed" week.
And weirdly? (ironically?) I feel better for it. I have noticed a massive difference in my muscles, especially my calves, which in turn means less issues with my shins. Go, me.
As I mentioned earlier, Rhi and I decided to take our 5.5km run indoors this Tuesday, since the weather was absolutely shite. And while we knew it would be a horror show, we actually did really well and other than one short potty stop (Runners trots, mate. You don't even know), we made it!
The last time I tried to run on the treadmill I couldn't do any more than a kilometer without having to stop and have an emotional pep talk with myself.
I still attribute this effort to my running buddy. Even though she probably hated every minute of my annoying positive pep talk through the stupid hour we spent huffing on those treddys.
I was sick on Wednesday but started to feel right in the evening, so I made myself climb onto my elliptical machine to see if I could smash out a 30minute session while watching the latest episode of Vampire Diaries. And I did alright!
Thursday was a bust because not only did I feel sick, but Chris came home from work even worse off than I was, and between Magic Mike and taking water and wet cloths to Chris in the bathroom, I forgot all about Pilates.
I had all good intentions to do my 4kms on Friday but felt worse for wear and before I knew it, it was Sunday morning and Rhi and I were standing in the Mawson Interchange carpark like zombies, declaring that "today's 8km run is going to be shit".
Turns out our long run was actually awesome. Yay, us!
After the 'half-way' point in our run, when we turned around and started to make our way back to the car, Rhi delivered a very in-depth plot description of a war movie she had recently seen. Stay with me. When she finished talking, we realised that we had run around 3km without any memory of the journey and were both instantly convinced that there had to be some genius invovled in this strategy for our runs going forward.
We realised that if we take turns in describing a movie or a book that we both become so engrossed in the conversation that the miles slip right past us and the run is over before we know it. Yes!
Don't get me wrong, all this running business has been amazing, and I love the feeling you get after a good run, but the log runs get so boring! I find that if I run at a pace that doesn't make me hate life I very quickly become bored, and want to stop running because I am simply over it.
But when Rhi and I find ourselves in an in depth discussion while we run, I genuinely enjoy the run and the company, and that makes the activity so much more bearable.
We agreed that going forward, we would be take turns in finding movies or books to discuss to make the miles go quicker.
On the subject of random running conversations, I have also noticed that Rhi and I are now talking more and more about the actual KI race itself; the trip there; where we are staying; and what the actual roads will be like to run on, etc.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, the marathon felt so far away and surreal, but we have both realised that we are now only 10 weeks out. When the hell did that happen?!
Like, guys, we are in July next week. July.
And after July comes August. And the Marathon is in fucking August. Fuckety fuck!
Gone are the days that we can simply focus on our training with this vague golden goal in the distance.
This shit is getting real.