Another weird work schedule week. A new employee started training this week (hi, Amanda!) and I worked one overnight shift to help train her. I thought it would make getting our Tuesday night workout in easier, since we could theoretically do it before I went to work but after Kourt came home so she wouldn't have to nap and then work out. But Kourt was too tired to work out once she got home, and I procrastinated just long enough to cut time really, really close at the gym. Unfortunately, I also didn't have any caffeine all Tuesday while I was up, and ended up with a withdrawal headache. Even more unfortunately, instead of getting coffee or an energy drink (didn't want to have to stop the treadmill to pee), I took some naproxen, even though there was this voice in the back of my head reminding me that there was supposed to be some reason I shouldn't do that before a workout. Combine that with the fact that to save time I chose to go to the gym location we don't normally use because it's not kept cool enough to be comfortable, and the result was that the second try at Running Tuesday didn't go as swimmingly as last week. I struggled through a quarter mile, then started to get a bit lightheaded and overheated. Tried to push through a second, but started getting a tiny bit nauseous. Ended up just walking and cutting the whole workout to 30 minutes, partly because of how much I was struggling and partly so I would have plenty of time to get home and shower before work. Still got in close to 2 miles in that 30 minutes, but it wasn't what I'd hoped to achieve.
This week's stats:
- 10.06 treadmill miles
- 0 outdoor miles
- 1 hours on the elliptical machine
- 3 weightlifting sessions
- 2 pounds lost
Total pre-training stats:
- 11 weeks
- 83.20 treadmill miles
- 36.21 outdoor miles
- 19 pounds lost (@ 196)
Treadmills can be SOOOO boring. Also, this stormy April weather is really messing with me. Every weekend I hope to get out and plant my garden, and then we get a string of strong storms and the soil ends up saturated. This week's storms came in Friday night and didn't leave, so this morning we all ended up on the treadmills for what was supposed to be a 2-hour long walk. I was hoping that with three of us there walking on adjacent treadmills it might be less boring, since I figured we might just chat the whole time like we do on the trail. But that didn't really happen because treadmills aren't actually conducive to 3-way conversation, so we all ended up with headphones on. We set the treadmills for the max time, but that was only 99 minutes. I planned to reset for another 21 minutes to finish out the walk, but an hour into it my sister was obviously bored out of her skull. So we stopped after the 99 minutes. The upside is that we all got to pace ourselves individually, so was able to keep about the same pace as I did last week.
So, with four weeks left before I start the official training schedule, I've been giving some thought to how to handle these weird shifts in my schedule and such. It would be far too optimistic to think that there wouldn't be any unforeseen interruptions to my training schedule over the course of 20 weeks. It's going to happen. So I guess my thought at this point is that I maintain a sort of priority list of workouts, with long walk/run at the top, and then tempo and speed walks, then strength training and cross training. If I have to skip something, it should be the strength or cross training first, then maybe the shorter walks if I have to. And unless something drastic like an injury or something happens, the long walk/runs are absolutely no-skip workouts. I should probably feel good about the fact that although I have had low-mileage weeks during pre-training I haven't actually missed a long walk or had a week where I didn't do at least three or four workouts minimum. I just have to keep up the momentum while I'm in training. And not get all neurotic about hiccups in the plan.
It did occur to me this week that a certain weight loss milestone seems to be within reach by race day: 100 total pounds lost overall since my highest weight. At two pounds per week I'd hit that goal with three and a half weeks to spare. It would be pretty damn awesome to be able to celebrate crossing the finish line AND 100 pounds gone at the same time. And although I usually wouldn't celebrate weight loss with food, you can bet my post-race celebration will involve eating whatever I damn well please for the rest of the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment