This week I’ve been feeling a little bit of imposters syndrome. Though I’m in week 5 I have gotten up and ran before work exactly once, even though I swore I would. I’ve been pretty serious about training so far but it hasn’t really gotten serious yet, but I don’t FEEL serious about it. Could it be a case of runner’s en nuit?
Tuesday 5k: One thing I kinda sorta swore off of was doing another plan in miles. We all know runners hate weird numbers as final/goal distances! But the plan I’m following is once again in miles. So these 5k’s I’ve been talking about are actually runs with a goal of 4.8k. Obviously I’ve headed out with a goal in mind of a real 5k. This is how excited I was to run Tuesday, I set my goal to 4.8k, nothing extra. But.. I didn’t want this week to get away from me the way last week did, and we have super awesome dinner plans for Sunday, so… It was really foggy but still hot. As often happens a run that I was dreading turned out to be just fine and even a little faster than I had planned.
Wednesday 5k: Post work and while supper was in the oven I headed out for fartleks. Even though the picture I’m wearing my super cute, thrifted running top I mostly did this one in my sports bra. I think it made me faster!
Thursday 6.5k: Head over to my instagram for a more concise summary of this run but she was a tough one! The run itself was totally fine but there were a whole lot of negative emotions around it. I’ve said I’m going to get up early and run but I haven’t been. By the end of the day having done that would always have been a better choice. I’ve also been skipping runs because of a slight rain. Those two facts taken together means that I feel like I’m letting myself down. So not believing that I would get up at 5:30 or run in an evening drizzle the next day I ran a day early. I get it doesn’t sound like a big deal but it was mentally tough. In the summer we eat a lot of takeout and I had to take mine home, put it in the fridge and eat my fish and chips once soggy. It did feel pretty good to check it off the list for the week.
Saturday 13k: A bit of a needlessly elaborate knee update. My new bad knee and my old bad knee have been poking at me here and there while running but not much more than I would have expected. But new bad knee (aka righty) has been weird. I don’t suffer with with tight muscles probably because I’m weirdly flexible? But the calf below my right knee has been hella tight and even worse after sitting for a while. I wonder (after googling) if that’s not due to some fluid leakage from my knee into the muscle. It usually gets better as I move around but it’s been like that for weeks now. Saturday before I headed out it was killing me and for the first time ever I told honey as I was leaving I was concerned I might not get through it. I put some voltaren on and headed out concerned. I even noted my mom and stepdad were home just in case. It hurt so badly I almost called it at the bottom of the driveway. If did loosen up after 2km and stayed fine. But I was worried about how it would feel after.
The run was fine a little faster than I would like for a long run and I was very ready for it to be over by the end. I wore every permutation of my outfit, just a bra, top on and top on with my tummy out and it turns out unscheduled rain was on the way in just as I finished. I took my picture on a very close beach at the very end passing on other spots because I was afraid to stop and start again along the way. I also wondered just how bad it would all feel the next day. So here’s a secret theory I have about runners, when we are in pain or injured we all hope for some sort of freaky Friday situation where we trip or something and are magically healed. Guess what you guys the next day my leg felt better than it had in weeks, how cool is that? I for one will be noting the date and celebrating the anniversary of this for years to come!
This week was a little tougher mentally than most but the running was fine. I’m ticking through the low teen long runs where I tend to find things the hardest. This week is Canada day so we’ll see if I stay on track! You can check out the plan I’m using here. Are you training for a marathon this year? How is your training going so far? Leave it in the comments below!
Sweat Sweetly 
