Week 7

I can tell these posts are getting boring…that is kind of how the training gets sometimes too.

Sunday: 7 mile mix up
The weather report said rain all day, but as I mentioned to Emily, we need to get out there in the elements if we are going to be truly prepared for a January run!  Thankfully it wasn't raining when we went out.  In fact it was overcast and very warm.  We headed over to the local high school track where we were greeted by wet cinder.  The photo below is dry, but imagine what this looks and feels like when it is wet…a lot like sand.

When we first began our run we were happy because the ground felt soft beneath our feet, we were chatting about how enormous the track felt compared to our little strip of asphalt back at the school, musing about jumping the hurdles that had been left out on this particular track, but soon became weary of the extra work it took to run on the pliable surface.  After 3 miles Emily expressed to me that she'd had enough trying to maneuver her feet on the yielding surface.  I wasn't going to argue.  

We made our way over to the nearby parking lot after having completed 3 miles on the track.  We continued to run in a zig zag pattern through the parking lot rows.  Emily complained of her legs hurting on the small up hill sections of the lot, so we avoided those.  After another couple of miles she began to complain of leg pain more frequently and we were walking and stretching more.  As hard as I tried I could not help from becoming impatient, soon loosing sight for exactly WHO we were doing this.  Gently (in my mind) pushing her to keep running.  After 5 miles total Emily told me her legs hurt and that she needed to stop.  She said she would finish out the 2 miles at home on the treadmill.  

I admired that she was willing to finish it out later.  I, on the other hand, knew that if I stopped I was not going to find the gumption nor the strength in my tired legs to do so.  Emily waited by the van, which was in my sight the whole time, while I finished out 2 miles.  Every time I would run by her, she would give me a thumbs up, or an encouraging "Your doing great mom!"   

When I finished and we were on the way home, I recalled how earlier she told me she felt bad for stopping.  When she said that, my heart sank because the last thing I wanted was for her to feel bad, especially after she had just ran 5 miles, three of which were pretty much on sand!  I reminded her that she had gotten dressed on a Sunday and headed out there with me regardless of the fact that she did not feel like it.  I encouraged her to think about all that she had done to get to where she was and did not forget to mention the fact that she promised herself that she would finish out the two on the treadmill at home.  

Splitting long runs is not an unusual practice, especially for runs that endure longer than 2 hours.  Typically a 7 mile run will last anywhere between 70 and 80 minutes for me.

For the past week we had been running 4.5 Tuesday, 3 Wednesday, and 4.5 Thursday.  This coming week called for the same.  I asked Emily on Christmas eve if she wanted to run 4 or 4.5, she said 4.  I have been doing some thinking about my child and all the miles she is putting in for training.  I have come to the conclusion that 4 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays will work better than 5.  I wanted to follow the schedule to the letter, but one thing I learned in school is that the programs written for the masses, do not always apply to the masses.  My belief is that if I do not tire her out during the week, and she keeps up with her base runs, that we will do just fine on race day January 26th, 2014!!!! 

Lesson learned: A little push is okay to get the child motivated, but to remember who this race is being trained for, and keep it fun.  

Emily's Corner: I did not know that Sundays run would be so hard.  I thought we would just be able to get it over with.  When my mom showed me the track that we were going to go on I was excited but then it started getting hard to run on because of the rain and because some kids probably messed up the track.  but when we ran in the parking lot I felt a little bit better.  but then I started getting really tired so I figured that i could just finish my run at home.