This week was unlike any I’ve every had before but not due to running or really any dramatic reason. If anything it was because of a really good thing! This was the first week in my life I’ve ever had a full time employee which might not sound like a big deal but it had lots of things swirling in my head. Practical things like running two sites, the reality that I can’t do all the trucking myself and having a better schedule in my head for next week. But also lots of worries about keeping both of us going for the season, having to land all the clients I meet with and you know all sorts of responsibilities. But that’s not training related at all. What is training related is just how much I needed running this week both to clear my head and to be forced to take care of myself. It made me so regretful actually that last year when work was also getting a bit crazy I didn’t just take the time to go for a few runs!
Wednesday 6.4k: I finally got around to my first day of running on Wednesday this week. I just couldn’t find the motivation to tell myself to get out there and run 5k or 6.4k which were my options. So I told myself you can just walk it if you want. I noticed that the chanterelles were out already this year. So I motivated myself out the door for a mushroom walk with a baggie and a knife. I did walk about 2.5k but I ended up going 7.5k overall. At the last moment I decided to run from the marina while honey worked on the boat instead. Still got my mushrooms and I got to dive into the warm water in the cove at the end instead.
Thursday 5k: Friday we were set to meet post tropical depression Elsa so it was important to get a run in before that. I had a meeting after work for a bigger job that was mine to lose, so after work and that I headed out. Guess what being tiered I ran the same old route, AGAIN! Since it was also the last day of the week for me it was nice to relax into a familiar run. I honestly did this one on autopilot and don’t remember anything notable. Oh and I got the job by the way! That just left a 5k and a long run for the weekend.
Saturday 5k: I worked with honey on Saturday and we were working with the tides. So we launched the boat at high tide in the morning and then we had a 6 hour break until high tide. I decided to do the shorter one because of humidity and laziness. However it should be noted that humidity doesn’t really bother me that much, so mostly an I’ll do it tomorrow sort of attitude took the day.
Sunday 16k: As much as I should do my long runs first thing in the morning I just never do. Honey usually makes the valid point that I should because that’s when the race will be but this time it’s up to me. So I sat around for a few hours and thought about it. I had planned to go at 3 when it was a bit cooler but the let’s get this over with attitude got me off the couch at 2. Recently the corner store in the direction I like to do long runs in closed. While that affects people a lot more than me I do miss the ability to buy water on the run. So I headed in the water direction and along the coast to stay cool. This kinda bugged me because it’s a bit of a lost opportunity to cover the ground I will on Raceday. So this is something I’ll have to figure out.
The run was good. This route is a little on the hilly side though. On a route I know I usually save my water breaks to coincide with a hill so I did that today too. It was a good run, this route has me running into the next county a ways and it’s a pretty dramatic difference how well the roads and especially the shoulders are maintained which is to say not well. But there’s also a lot less traffic on this side. I was a little slower than I’d like to be by about 10 seconds per km but given how warm it was that’s probably for the best. I also decided that I’m not going to ‘stress’ as much about getting a great running picture on long runs from this point on. So expect to see a lot of pictures of me just standing there in the next couple of months. I promise though I’ll try to stand somewhere pretty. It just lightens the mental load every so slightly. It was a good run but for the odd km or so when I was away from the ocean breezes was notably tougher, so yeah km 11 sucked. I also had my first moment where I kinda sorta wanted to have masks be a thing of the past. But it’s 200% on me since I didn’t think of it. Which meant no gatorade from the pharmacy but water from the food truck instead, which was totally fine. I did use my shirt as a sort of mask but it was less than ideal. I didn’t finish quite as strong as last week but I wasn’t on the struggle bus either. So that’s a win right?
This week had my head swirling but running was really helpful in setting that right. I’ll have to try to remember that going forward. It gave me the time to do a better job planning out this week. Running was good to me this week and tricking myself into doing it still works! You can check out the plan I’m using here. If you want a sneak peak of my training follow me on instagram! Are you training for a marathon this year? How is your training going so far? Leave it in the comments below!
Sweat Sweetly 
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