DAY THIRTY-SIX – REST
Well, I was originally scheduled to do my cross training today, but a work task took an hour longer than expected, so I did not make it to the gym. I felt badly about myself and wondered if my motivation was starting to fizzle. I asked myself if this was going to be the beginning of a slump. However, I did not allow myself to make a catastrophe about skipping one workout and I managed to pick the cross training back up on Wednesday. No harm, no foul.

DAY THIRTY-SEVEN – SPEED – 1.9 MILES AT 7 MPH
Aaargh! I still can’t do it! I was not able to maintain 7mph for 1.9 miles. However, I did better on this speed run than I did on my last speed run, so I’m able to call it improvement, if not success.

I started out by allowing myself to warm up. I walked a bit, barely jogged for a while, went a little faster for a while, then was finally feeling pretty charged up and I was only at about 6mph. I wanted to be ready then, but I just wasn’t ready, so I plugged along for a while at 6mph. I think I start getting a little worried when I do that. I think that if I’m running at 6mph, I will use up all my energy and that there won’t be any left to do the 7mph, so I think I have to hurry up and get up to 7mph. So, I am pretty sure I bumped it up to 6.3, then 6.5 very quickly, but then I started having trouble with my treadmill. It seemed like it was sorta catching or skipping or something. After it happened about 3 times, I became convinced I wasn’t imagining it, so I hopped onto the machine next to me and punched in 6.5 mph and tried to just continue where I left off.

However, that never really works that well for me. Whenever there’s been even the slightest decrease, it seems my heart takes full advantage of that and drops down in rate rather quickly. I tried to force it, though, by just starting at 6.5 and I seemed to be doing okay, so I kept going. Then I was just antsy to get going on my ‘real’ mileage for the day, since I think I had already racked up about 1.2 or so in warm-up, so I hopped it up to 6.8, then 6.9, then 7.0 without much delay in between the increases.

At 7mph, I felt pretty good. Initially. For about 3/10ths of a mile. Then I was struggling. This is so frustrating! I cannot be punking out at 3/10ths of a mile when I have over a mile and a half left to go! I thought it was going to be a repeat of last time when I had to keep stopping and starting and stopping and starting. Then I remembered I didn’t have the luxury of time today. I had an early client I had to be ready for. I did give myself lots of warm-up and cool-down time, but I didn’t give myself all the time in the world to do the actual running, so I kept on pushing myself.

At some point, I thought maybe I was gonna make it, but at about the 1-mile mark, I was just dying. I was like a kid at bedtime, trying to think of every excuse why I didn’t have to keep running – I want a drink, I have to go to the bathroom… I stopped, took a drink, walked a little bit, then built back up to speed again and finished out the remainder of the distance. Not a stellar performance, but not a total embarrassment, either.

DAY THIRTY-EIGHT – CROSS TRAINING – ONE HOUR
Made it to the gym today for about an hour of cross-training. My heart wasn’t really in it at first and I was very slow to warm up, but eventually I was getting into it.

I found myself really thinking about my dad when I was doing dips, and no, not because he was a dip, or because he would call me a dip, although both of those are true, but because he injured his leg in 2005 and had to do some time in a physical rehab facility, where they wouldn’t release him until he could prove that he could get around by himself and that included him essentially having to transition himself to and from a standing position to and from a sitting position largely using his arms, which amounted to the exercise known as a dip. I remember thinking, at the time, that he’d never be released since he was so heavy that I doubted he’d be able to do it, but amazingly, he did. I was impressed that he could dip several hundred pounds, despite that he was so unhealthy that he weighed several hundred pounds. Here I was today, 20 years younger, trying to dip a mere 50-60 pounds and struggling with that. Life is so weird. So, anyhow, as long as I was thinking about him and doing these dips, I was crying, but the dip machine is in the back corner of the gym, so I don’t think anyone noticed and if they would have, I would have just looked like I was really working out strenuously, so I really didn’t care. And, even if someone did see me crying, I’m a freakin’ therapist, if I can’t allow myself to cry when I need to, I have no business telling other people that they should!

The rest of my workout was pretty uneventful and I felt good about getting back on track with my marathon training.

DAY THIRTY-NINE – CROSS TRAINING – 30 MINUTES
Today, I’m tired. I don’t know if I’m losing some of my initial motivation, if it’s because my work schedule is too light, if it’s because I’m worried about money, if it’s because I’m still grieving the 8 million losses I’ve had this year, or if it’s hormonal, or what, but I’m sluggish and somewhat unmotivated today.

Only 30 minutes of cross training really is a cake-walk, though, so this really isn’t a daunting task, even without much in the way of motivation. I eventually got myself going this morning, rolled myself to work on my bicycle, then walked on over to the gym for a lousy 30 minute workout.

It was a little fun in that I couldn’t really do my normal workout in 30 minutes, so I just wandered around the gym, doing whatever exercise I felt like doing, with as much weight as I felt like it, without counting how many I was doing. I did about 10 minutes of various things with one of those large exercise balls, mostly working on abs, obliques, and back muscles, then I just wandered around trying out various machines that caught my attention. The 30 minutes was over before I knew it.

However, I had taken so long to get going that it was really late by the time I got into the office and got settled for the day and I was starving. I ate a ginormous lunch that pretty much better tide me over for like the rest of the day or I’m gonna be getting back into that “Athena” category.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, that’s a nice way of saying “fat.” I started noticing those categories on race awards lists in about the past year or so, but they may have always been around and I just didn’t notice them. There would be awards for fastest man, fastest woman, then there would be awards in the senior division and maybe in a kids’ division, and then there would be awards for Clydesdales (men) and Athenas (women). It was intriguing to me, so I did a little research and was dismayed to find out it just meant fat – women over 150 pounds and I don’t remember what the weight was for men, but I do remember that I was WELL within the Athena category when I first found out what it was. That was pretty depressing. However, just earlier this month, I dipped down into the normal people category and I’m happy to be there and would like to stay, but we’ll have to see what wins, family genetics and bad habits or sheer will and determination. Wish me luck!

DAY FORTY – LONG – 6 MILES AT 6 MPH – Third of 10 Long Runs
It’s about 3 hours after I completed my run and I’m just now getting around to maybe starting to do some work. My run went fairly well, not great, but okay. First of all, I was again unable to keep my speed up. I’m starting to believe that I set my training goals too high and that I’ll really have to get ready to accept a higher marathon completion time, but it’s still very early in the training, so I will maintain hope for now.

It took me about 3/4 of a mile to get up to speed and then I couldn’t really hold it that well. I did about a mile and had to stop and adjust my pack because it was giving me an abrasion on my lower back, but I didn’t stop again until I hit Mile 2. I guess I’m just going to have to allow myself to stop each mile to drink and let my heart rate come back to a more normal pace during my long runs. Maybe it won’t have to be every mile, but for today it was.

I could keep a pace of almost 6 mph for a while, but not indefinately, and after stopping to drink, it would take me up to a half mile to even get close to that speed again. I averaged 5.6 miles for the whole run, which is still faster than my desired marathon pace, so I still have a chance despite that I’m not meeting my speed goals now.

I did a lot of stretching, had a nice hot shower, ate some lunch and did some fun e-mails and phone calls, but now it’s time to get to work. I hope I’ll be able to work for the rest of the day. During marathon training, it’s important for me to be able to do my long runs and not be completely incapacitated for the rest of the day.

DAY FORTY-ONE – PACER – 5 MILES AT 5 MPH = 12 MINUTE MILE PACE
What a breeze! I cannot believe the difference that 1 mile per hour can make! Yesterday, when I was trying to maintain 6 mph, I was dying. I had to keep stopping and I thought my heart would explode. Today, just trying to stay above 5 mph was super easy. My heart rate never even went into a hard-working range. It was elevated, but not even enough for this run to have qualified as a ‘cardio’ workout. I couldn’t believe it. Now, if I could just run the whole marathon at 5 mph and finish up feeling strong and fresh and happy, now that would be cool, but I really want to run the whole thing a little faster than that, more like 5.25 mph. But anyhow, I did my 5 miles happily today and without incident. Plus, I was in a new pair of shoes!

I went down to see my buddies at RunAZ in Ahwatukee. I was one of their first customers and now they have more than one store and lots of employees and exciting events, and I’m so glad they’re doing well. Anyhow, the extremely helpful sales clerk had me in a new pair of shoes in about 2 minutes and they worked great today. Five miles, no issues. Yeah!

P.F. Chang’s Rock and Roll Arizona almost has my Marathon All-Star page ready. I will link to it when it is completely done. That’s exciting!!!

DAY FORTY-TWO – EASY – 2.6 MILES at 4.5 MPH
Today’s run was a little more complicated than it should have been, but it sure was fun. The speed is ridiculously slow, so I didn’t have any trouble reaching that speed quickly, then holding it. Having only to do a measly 2.6 miles, I was free to wander around the streets in my neighborhood, just going wherever my attention took me.

The first point of interest was a rummage sale. I jogged by it and examined the offerings, but the sale wasn’t even open yet, so I had to laugh at myself being up and out so early on a Sunday morning. The next point of interest was that I turned towards the township of Guadalupe, rather than away from it. I guess I felt adventurous today. I ended up at a nearby water retention area that has a little asphalt path around it and I took a couple of laps around the grassy area, having the little park all to myself.

As I headed home, I had gotten a fair way up the street when I passed a ferocious dog who was chained up in his own front yard. I had passed him on the way out, too, and he scared me then, too, but I had been gone long enough to have forgotten about him, which allowed him to startle me a second time. I was just laughing at myself and getting over the shock, when here comes another dog, and this one is NOT chained up.

He looks like an Alaskan Husky or some other such wolf-like dog. Oh great! The one dog that scared me twice doesn’t get to kill me, but this guy does. However, as it got closer and closer, my brain did the mental calculations necessary to tell my pounding heart that the dog was only like the size of a football. Man, was that weird! Must be a miniature of some sort. Okay, so my arm won’t be ripped from the socket by this mini-menace, but I don’t know if it’s an ankle-biter or not, so I prepare for some sort of combat with this pint-sized dog-wolf who was still charging at me at full speed.

As it got close enough to touch, I realized it was not only an incredibly small breed dog, it was also just a puppy. A really, really, really adorable puppy. The fear instantly vanished and changed to concern for the safety of this little guy out without a people, running smack down the middle of the road. I picked him up and he had a collar with an address. Good for him, bad for me, I thought I had me a new puppy. The address was nearby, but not terribly nearby and I took him back home to a person who didn’t even know the dog was missing and wasn’t even remotely distressed or relieved about the experience. That sorta made me angry, but at least the owner had enough sense to have a collar on the dog, and I will give them somewhat of a break since it was still like ungodly early on a Sunday morning, I probably woke the guy up to bring the dog back, but in that case, was the dog out all night? Before I could get angry again, I decided to get back to my interrupted run.

Obviously, my heart rate had returned completely back to normal and it was basically like starting over. I thought about just trashing everything I had already done and just starting over, but I allowed myself to just have my easy run and let it have been interrupted by my little friend. If it happened every week, that would be one thing, but I imagine this is pretty much of a one-in-a-thousand type of occurrence. However, if I do find that dog again, maybe he doesn’t have his collar on that day… No, wait, my cats would kill me if I brought home a dog, not to mention what my husband would do!

What a fun and exciting end to WEEK SIX!