The Road to Dopey: Week 8 - The Wrap up of a Disappointing February

February Miles to Date: 16.5
February Average Pace: 14:08 min/mi
2016 Miles to Date:57.3
Yoga Sessions this week: 1

Last week, I was unexpectedly taken home to say goodbye to my grandfather. That's why there was no blog. It was sad, and we're all doing better, but it made for a rough week. And that is one of the contributing factors to my February training being disappointing to me. After doing so well in January, it was all too easy for life to derail my training.

I had what seemed like emotional upheaval after emotional upheaval in February. First there was drama with when I can defend my dissertation (I just want to graduate people). Then when I seemed like I got that under control, I got the call about my grandfather and went home to be with my family. This week I had a number of leads in the job hunt, which will be taking me away from home again.

But I'm determined to stick with my training better in March. I have a race in March, after all. I had a time goal for it, but I don't know if I will make it now with the training slump.

Princess was last week and I was vicariously reliving the best weekend in 2015 while watching my friends race via FB. The bling envy definitely helped renew my desire to train for Dopey 2018, but I'm itching to get back to a Disney race sooner than that. Maybe if I get a good job soon, I can think about a 2017 race.

When I saw this quote yesterday, it made me think of my dismal February. I need to keep this in mind when I wake up in the morning and think "I should work on that paper ASAP" and let my running shoes gather dust. I'm going to try and be better about that next month. Hopefully life will let me do it.

The Road to Dopey: Week 6 - A whole lot of nothing

February Miles to Date: 10.5
February Average Pace: 14:10 min/mi
2016 Miles to Date:51.3
Yoga Sessions this week: 0

A whole lot of nothing. That's what I did this week workout wise. This week was really stressful and I'm a little ashamed to come to you having only run 2 miles. But there's was a weird pain in my right foot. It's doing much better and I hope to run more this coming week. Even if I have to go to Ohio in the middle of it for a funeral.

I'm really not thinking a lot today. A LOT happened this past week that was stressful and upsetting and I wish I could have run it out. I just wanted to keep my end of the bargain and check in here. Hopefully my foot feeling better will help me run out the weirdness of this past week.

I'll check in again next week.

<3

The Road to Dopey: Week 5 - The dangers of "used to be"

February Miles to Date: 8.5
February Average Pace: 14:10 min/mi
2016 Miles to Date:49.3
Yoga Sessions this week: 2

Well, we made it through another week. I had to send the super scary "let's pick a date for my dissertation defense" email this week. Terrifying. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about the things that are going to get me through the stress surrounding defense.

Monday morning I was a bit exhausted from the Miracle Match weekend, so I skipped my Yoga. But by the time I got home Monday night, I felt the need to stretch everything that was sore out. So I did my yoga. Tuesday, I slept in instead of running. I was still sore from the race and I felt a little terrible (cedar has moved into the area...yay allergies). Wednesday, I also skipped the yoga, but Thursday I got up and got out and ran 3 miles, including some hills. And by hills, I mean the pedestrian bridge to the stadium. Its a pretty nice incline. I did 4 repeats of it and then ran back home.

Friday morning I did my yoga and then Friday night I had some friends over, so I didn't do my long run on Saturday, opting to take it easy first thing in the morning and then get most of my work for the weekend done. This morning I did 5.5 miles to the Hamilton soundtrack (I finally caved and bought it and then my friend Davis mentioned he ran to it and I was like "hmmm...I should try that this weekend". It was pretty fantastic. Definitely going to be repeated.

My 5.5 miles was in a time that I used to run 10Ks in. And that made me a little sad. Oh how far I've fallen. I know I can't dwell on the runner I was before science got crazy and I basically stopped training. I will get back to where I was and beyond. That's part of what this road to Dopey is for. In the meantime, I'll put one foot in front of the other and not throw away my shot (Hamilton reference...)

Until next week...I'm gonna go foam roll :)