Vacation, Jeff's Recovery, Recommitment.
The last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. It started with my "vacation" back to the midwest where I was attending two of my best friends' weddings. One was in Indianapolis on the 11th and one just outside Cleveland on the 18th.
For the sake of the champagne toasts, I broke my sober summer training, but kept my alcohol intake to a minimum and kept myself as hydrated as possible! The biggest hindrance to my training was dealing with weather! You see, in San Jose, I don't generally have to track thunderstorms to determine whether or not I'm going to get my long run in... but that's exactly what happened on my first Saturday and Wednesday.... and second Friday/Saturday.... Basically, it rained a lot. I did get my 10 M run in on the Monon/Canal trail starting at Butler University (where I attended college) and running up just past the Indiana School for the Blind (where I volunteered during college through my sorority Delta Gamma). It was a hot day and I ran out of water with ~3 miles to go and couldn't wait to get back to another bottle I had waiting for me! :) Monday on vacation, my Dad picked me up at 8:00 AM to go swimming with him and my grandpa. They go 2 or 3 times a week and I worried that I wouldn't keep up with my dad, but I focused on good form, since I know I'm not a fast swimmer, and was able to *barely* keep up with my dad for about an hours worth of swimming. Tuesday I ran over to a middle school track near my sister's and did 6 - 800m intervals with core training sets in between. That was the last of my workouts because rain cancelled my plans to run pre-wedding on Saturday. Last week, I wasn't able to work out at all because my fiancé, Jeff, had hernia surgery and I was his care-taker for the week. It's really exhausting to have to get up every time someone is cold or needs water or needs to use the restroom or needs medicine or is throwing up.... I have immense respect for nurses who are able to do this for complete strangers when it wore me out doing it for someone I love. Jeff is feeling much better now, though still recovering. Saturday was the first day he was able to sit up on his own, which excited me because I got to go to the 10-12 miler at Campbell park! Even though I was exhausted, my toe nails hurt, my knees hurt, and I was dehydrated and sick by the end of the 12 miles because I hadn't been preparing for it... it was great to get back into my sneakers! In addition to dealing with Jeff's surgery, I was dealing with a family emergency last week that was really getting me down. Getting up and going to the run Saturday morning really got me out of a rut and it was great to see everyone and hear the familiar "Go Team." It was this time that I knew that I needed to make sure to get my recommitment forms in. I had some trouble at Track after turning in my recommitment forms- we were running 1200's and I was in new shoes- which turned out to be a mistake and ended up with severe arch pain after round 3, forcing me to sit out a few laps early. I've since been taking it easy on my poor feet, trying to swim more, ran a 10K for our "rest" weekend and spending a fair amount of time with Running Revolution, who determined I should stick with my Alchemy's in a half size bigger- but I'd have to special order them. So, for now, I'm still waiting....
