Seems I may have spoken to soon.....

So what do you want and why do you want it? The why question is very important because what you think you want could just be the things someone else wanted for you. This is also important because if you don’t understand why you want something then you will not be willing to pay the prices to get it. Winners are successful and fulfilled because they not only know what they want, they are clear on why they want it. - Keith Cameron Smith

I've talked about the highs and lows of life and how they pertain to training for this marathon.  Just last week I was almost on cloud nine in regards to how things were progressing.  Knowing that it was temporary, this this was only the 3rd week, I still wanted to take it all in....I guess I spoke too soon.

Friday - Rest day
Definitely has been a longgggg week, but it has been a good one.  Stuck with the plan and decided to not even try and wake up early.  Had appointment with the chiropractor after work and we were discussing how training has been going.  I showed him my chart and I seriously had to tell him I was a bit nervous because it's been close to perfect.  Of course I followed it up with me telling him that while I'm nervous, I don't expect it to continue and I'm letting myself be proud of what I have accomplished so far.  On my chart it has 6-7 highlighted weeks.  Those are weeks that I was "nervous" about, for various reasons.  My first "nervous" week is week 5, due to the fact I will be coming off a 9 miles run and in the past when I run that much, it takes a week or so to recover.
In my last post, I noted how I wanted to "step it up a notch" in my runs for the week.  That was accomplished, of course as I was logging my runs onto my calendar for the month, I notice that those runs were actually SLOWER than most of my previous runs.  Not a bad thing, especially since I think for my short runs, those are a good pace.  I got my compression sleeves for when my shin splints act up and he gave me more homework, which basically involve my eating habits. 

Saturday - 5 Miles  (44:05)
Woke up and headed to the gym for my "long run" of the week.  Weird saying "only" 5 miles, but it's true.  Seems everyone and their mother decided it would be a good time to go work out, but I found a treadmill, popped in my ipod and did my thing.  Discussions with the doc and friends, I've decided to keep my longer runs at around 9 minutes per mile, at least until the half marathon in the end of February in order to achieve my goal.  Everything felt great, as it seems par for the course and kept a smooth pace.....Until about a 1/2 mile to go.  Just didn't feel right.  But I shrugged it off and kept going and with one lap to go it got worse.  Felt like I got hit with a lead pipe in my knee, but unfortunately, no one around the gym was holding any pipes (my bad attempt humor, I know...lol)
Things really are going through my head right now.  How great I've been feeling, how it shouldn't be like this "yet", what ifs, doubt, etc, etc.  As I mentioned before, I didn't expect concerns until week 5, so issues after a shorter run is kind of a blow.  After finishing I tried walking a lap of a cool down but I just couldn't take it.  I needed to go stretch and that seemed to help a little.  Went home to shower and ice my knee.  Not much I could do but rest, so I took a nap and felt useless.  Walking down the stairs was painful, which was ironic because just the day before I was "running" down the stairs at work and thinking how good my legs felt.
Spent Saturday night watching the Buckeyes hoops game with a buddy of mine.  Needed to get out of the house for a bit.  Catching up and just shootin the breeze.  Thanks Huey...

Sunday - Cross Train
Well, today was a big bust in terms of working out.  Planned on going to the gym after church, but my knee, as well as my mind, were just not feeling it.  Trying to be "smart" and not push it too much.  I was able to get some errands done, catch up on some cleaning, some laundry and some reading, so the day didn't feel like a total loss.  Trying to let the curve ball thrown at me not affect me.

As I sat down to chart some things the doc asked, the one thing I am learning is that I suck at the whole preparing meals thing.  I love to cook, love to eat.  But my habits most of my life have been so off the wall.  Being a single guy, I just cook for myself, so no matter how good or how bad it tastes, its still awesome.  Downside of that is when I don't feel like cooking, if I don't have things prepared, I don't eat properly.  And until recently, I'm trying to take accountability for myself.  It's one thing when you have a family.  Because if you don't feeling like eating, it doesn't matter, since you still have other people to feed.  So starting this week I'm going to "try" and actually prepare meals and get used to eating as well as track so I can see....lol

Well, tomorrow is another day.  Schedule says rest day, but I may just go for a swim, partly because I missed the workout today.  Last day of the month, so at least I'll be busy, then Doctors after work, hopefully I get good news and if not, well....Hopefully I listen to him  :-)

Until next time...