Welcome to another week!
I’m posting my training recap, but I’m going to do things a little differently here. I’ll post what I was supposed to run and what I actually did. Why? Well…I’m a perfectionist. When I don’t do everything right, when I don’t hit my training paces/distances perfectly I tend to get down on myself. Sometimes I get REALLY down on myself. I am trying to take a step back and be more forgiving. It is, to put it mildly, hard.
I suspect I am not the only one. And I think perfectionism can be complicated on social media – where friends might be achieving or going beyond their goals, or where you might just see people living perfect, happy lives. But we all deal with struggles. We all have trouble balancing life – whether it’s work, school, family obligations, running, and the things we do to keep ourselves sane.
In the interest of keeping it real here, I admit that though I strive for perfection, I am not perfect and I am slowly trying to be okay with that. So without further ado…
Monday – day off – I took this day off seriously and I tried to get caught up on sleep.
Tuesday – Plan: 7-8 miles, Actual: 8 Miles – I ran very, very late at night, because again, I had trouble sleeping during the day. I ran some of my 8 at 5K pace, which felt fine even though I was secretly worring about that.
Wednesday- Plan: 4-5 Miles, Actual: 4 miles plus Solidcore class – I went to solidcore in the morning, slept some, and then ran again late at night. I was able to do 4 miles before they started shutting the gym down. \
Thursday- Plan 6-7 miles plus strides, Actual: 0 – I was accidentally locked out of my apartment for a bit. I went to walk the dog, J went to leave and poof! Door was locked and I didn’t have a key. I panicked a bit and ended up forcing my way back in. I don’t recommend this method, because it means a repair man will have to come fix things and that’s tough to do when you’re a shift worker. I was up till 4pm trying to fix this … so I did not run.
Friday – rest/cross-train : I rested, although I had high hopes of making up my run here. I was still kind of exhausted from the lack of sleep the day before, so I just chilled out and napped for about an hour or two after work.
Saturday – Plan: 4-5 miles, Actual: 4 miles – Saturday is my day to get everything done that I tend to neglect during the week. So I had a lot on my to-do list plus some wedding stuff. I also woke up at 4am (this happens some when I’m working nights) so by 5pm I was feeling pretty tired. I still managed to motivate enough to go to the gym and get in 4 miles. I ended up staying up super late (till midnight) finishing up some tasks and getting some time to spend with J, since we really didn’t see much of each other all week.
Sunday: plan: 9-10 miles, Actual: 0 miles – Missing this run made me feel awful, but I was so tired, and really feeling the effects of a rotten week of sleep that I just couldn’t get myself going. I started getting very stressed about going on my run, and I was experiencing a lot of negative self-talk so I decided I needed to push the reset button and call it a loss for the week.
I had some pretty bad sleep this past week, and it is AMAZING how much that can affect mood. I am going to prioritize sleep this week. I’ve got 13 weeks till Richmond, which is plenty of time to drill down and focus on that goal.
I think sometimes it’s easy for me to forget that running is supposed to be a stress reliever, it shouldn’t add stress to my life. Pressing my reset button to retrain myself to see it as something enjoyable, something that allows me to get outside and test my physical limits is a real gift. I’m looking forward to getting back to that this week.
Fit For The Finish Line 
Nice work! Life happens. Sometimes more often than we’d like. I was doing a similar post with the scheduled and actuals on my blog during the lead up to Big Sur. When I was able to look at those entries with as little judgment as possible I could pick out small things that might need to be tweaked for the coming week. You’ve got a ton on your plate right now, you’re doing the best you can on that day, in that moment, and that is enough.
This is so true! I think sometimes it is hard to step back and look at the big picture. It’s also true though that the journey to each race changes us and it’s important to enjoy the process!