This week so far...

First of all, I just want to say thanks for all the kind words regarding our loss of Jake. I appreciate it!

Here's what's been going on in my world this week:

Monday, 10/17 – 6 miles & a swim
Still warm and muggy, but not as bad as summer, so no complaints from me. This is my 1st run since last Monday, thanks to the neck/shoulder issues. I was really determined to run my scheduled 14 on Saturday, but was persuaded to follow doctor’s orders and not run until Monday. I’d rather miss a long run to recover from this mess, than make it worse and be out another week. Technically, I think the doctor wanted me to wait until after my appointment to run. Details, details. It was much cooler in the morning, so that’s when I headed out for my run. Sorry, doc! I managed to get in 6 miles (10:30 pace), because I was taking a vacation day – yay me!

Also, for some unknown reason, I signed up to do the swim portion of a tri relay on Saturday. (STUPID!) Because of this, I thought it might be a good idea to get back in the pool (DUH!). I had every intention of getting into the pool last week, but the neck/shoulder thing prevented me from this (because it does help to be able to move your arms and head while swimming). Actually, I know why I volunteered for this…it’s because I hate the swim. And, because a certain coach once told me that the only way to overcome my swim issues is to get back out there and race. So, I didn’t want to risk falling off my bike or tweaking an ankle during a 5k race, so I decided to follow the coach’s advice and get more experience racing the swim via this relay. Lord help me!

Tuesday, 10/18 – rest day
“Rest from what?”, you might be asking. I was asking myself the same thing after not running for an entire week. But, I knew I’d rather run on Wednesday and Thursday when the weather was supposed to be much cooler, so Tuesday was my rest day.

Wednesday, 10/19 – 5 miles and swim
Okay, so Wednesday is normally my mid-week-short-long-run day. That was true until 4 weeks ago when I began traveling for work. Then last week, well, it was the freaking neck/shoulder thing. So this has been where I’ve cut my mileage during the week– I usually run 5-6 in the morning and then 2-4 (depending on the schedule) in the evening. I know this is not ideal, but seriously people, who has time to do 7 – 10 miles midweek and work and have quality time with their family? Once again, for the 5th week in a row, I ended up only doing the morning portion of my runs do to other priorities...I have this pesky swim coming up and for that I needed some more practice. My morning run was done at a 10:15 pace, my after work swim – 1200 yds

Thursday, 10/20 – 3 miles
Okay, okay this was supposed to be 4 miles, but the darn snooze button got the best of me! And, since I had overslept, I had to haul booty – 9:32 pace thankyouverymuch cool weather!

I am a bit bummed that, due to the shoulder/neck issues, I have not been able to do my usual strength training. No P90X (i.e. push ups, chin ups, weights, abs, etc.). I am hoping that at the very least, I will be back to at least doing Ab Ripper X between now and the marathon.

Now I need to decide what to do this weekend. I feel guilty about missing my 14-miler on Saturday, but I think I will stick to my planned 10 this week and 8 next week. Only 16 days 'til NYC!!!