Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday, no running, except about 2 miles total to jobs. EHHHHH.

Wednesday, jogged with dog 7.6 miles. He was good and then we finished our run, started walking home, and he decided to ignore me. Nothing major, not even much pulling, but I was starting to get annoyed with the marking, and telling him not to mark (something in heat must have passed by because he was attempting pretty much one continuous dribble of pee along the Canal path, lol), so I put the Gentle Leader on him. I carry that thing every run, but usually don't use it....about once every few weeks or so, though, he needs a Gentle Reminder that it's MY run. Apart from that, though, it was a good run. I worked on more form issues. I'm trying to be more efficient. I'm lazy.

Speedwork tonight. First, studying.

But, lately, nothing has been sinking in. This marathon training, and recent short sleep--again--have messed up my brains. I'd thought that I'd balanced my intake of caffeine at work well, but the last two days have been ghastly. I think it's more adrenaline than caffeine, anyway. At any rate, I cannot continue to stay up until 3 or whatever, and then get up 4 hrs later. Not enough sleep. Another problem is hunger--I eat a lot at work, but by the time I get home, I'm hungry again. I need to smarten up and just have milk or Ovaltine, not the full-on late night fridge raid. Who eats hummus and bagels after midnight?

Anyway, if I drink less tea at work, and eat less afterwards, I might be able to sleep more; thus I'll feel less stiff/tired and less cognitively-impaired.

The nice thing about being somewhat sleep-deprived, though, is that I somehow get a new perspective on creative concerns--IE, what to be for Halloween? I might not bother, but I feel like I'm already halfway to looking like Amy Winehouse. This would not have occured to me if I'd been in a more normal frame of mind.

will write more after speedwork.

ok, speedwork done, bringing my daily total to 18.32 miles. Anyway, I think I've hit upon gold...let me explain. My deepest set burning running ambition is not just to get 'fast', whatever that means, but to get 'fast' and run fast...in costume. On and off, I've been pondering the possibilities. Amy Winehouse running a marathon would be something. By the time I get "fast", though---if---there will be someone else on the pop chop block. I hope Amy's straightened herself out by then. She really has an amazing voice. Anyway, oh, yeah, speedwork--

Well, just as I'm doing a mini digestive system detox (cut out a few things, and added more fruit and real cranberry juice and green tea), I've been pondering an emotional detox too. I've been really negative in general, I think--for me, at any rate. Too much whining. Much of it has to do with Matt's deployment. I'm handling it ok, but not well. This is a sucky period, several months in but still not even halfway. Plus, there are my job issues, but I've taken steps recently, and things have recently become better.

Anyway, the gastro-intestinal thing made my Monday and Tuesday evening shifts interesting, and I'm feeling somewhat drained because of it. Edit: to clarify, I wasn't among the inflicted, not directly. Anyway, I decided that I just had to dig in and do the workout, no whining---I would spare Gazelles #1 and #2. They're pretty tough, but they deserve better. LOL

The workout was 6X 6min. I started quickly, before I had time to think or whine about it, and ended up in a group of the faster people in the run club, who were running slower than usual because of races this weekend. Still, it was a bit unnerving, but I hung in there. Actually, it wasn't hard to hang in there, for some reason. I was talking a bit with them too, and hearing them take the pace relatively effortlessly kind of sunk into my head the idea that, no, this wasn't hard after all, really.

.83/@7:16
.84/@7:09??? (forgot to hit the lap button--.95 miles in 8 min, 2min of which were rest. Conveniently, all of my rest intervals were .11, so I figure I ran .84)
.85/@7:05
.87/@6:54
.85/@7:00 (the people I was with didn't do this repeat--I was on my own. Just ran what it felt like before. not bad)
.9/@6:39 (ended up linking up with Gazelle #1)

So, a pretty decent workout. It was amazing how not terrible the intervals over 7:00/mile felt, actually. This is good. I've been trying to convince myself that, in light of my recent 1/2 marathon, that 7s are actually not scary at all, even when they're on the low side. I still have a mental ceiling about 6s...

At any rate, I've run most of the miles I wanted to run this week, already, and I'll be well over at this rate...I might take tomorrow off and just walk the dog. Definitely, I should head over for another yin yoga class too.