Runner, you need to wake up!

This is it! I am officially stopping to be a cake eating instead of training idiot. Of course I knew that I needed a break (mostly mental one) so I took it, however it has gone too far now. 

I wanted to do some running races this fall (well, one or two 5k) and you need to run to be able to do that. And PPC uses her free time to prepare the running plan for me and I do not follow it and feel guilty wasting her time. I have not skipped a planned running workout in a couple years but I have bagged like 5 runs in the last three weeks (which is close to 50% of all my running workouts), which is very very bad (all of them were easy runs, I did my quality workouts but it is still very bad). I took one week pretty much off after that last triathlon and wanted to get back at it afterwards. But one week has become 3 weeks now and I do not even know how. Once you skip one run then it is easy to skip the next one and one after that, isn’t it?

But yesterday was a wake up call for me. 5x1k @ 5k pace preceded by 15min sub-tempo.  I was able to do similar workout last week no problem but yesterday was a disaster. Last time I was not able to hit my running paces was in college and I had no problem being spot on since, until yesterday. I felt horrible already during a warm up but I figured that 1k at 3:50-55 should not be a problem, right? I felt somehow ok during 15min at 6:54 pace. Then took 4min rest and started those 1k. I did the first one in 4:06, then took 2 min standing rest, second one 4:11 and then called it a day.

I think that this failure is mostly due to conditions (hauling winds, lightening, storm was coming) and fatigue (9h drive Fr, 4h bike race Sat, 9h drive Sun, 2h fast bike ride Tuesday, and biking to and from work yesterday). But it is also due to those last three weeks (horrible eating habits and my “whatever” attitude).

I think that my attitude stems from the life changes I have been going through and needed a mental break and also because I am starting working with Michelle in November so I am postponing starting real training until then. Maybe I am just using “I loved Hannover and now had to move to an unknown cemetery town across the Ocean alone to start my first real full-time job” as an excuse to give me a break, but I do not think that I am. 

I do not really care that I suck at swimming and biking because Michelle is going to help me take care of it. But I do care when my running sucks, especially since I wanted sub-19 this fall. I have spent last three weeks all over the place and some of those missed runs were inevitable but some of them not so much.

I have realized that I have not communicated well enough with PPC regarding my running plan. Basically there is no off-season in my running plan now since I have fall races planned but I needed a time-off. So I have not been following the plan 100%.  

Anyway, I am going south to Shawnee National Forest for a Fat Tire Festival this weekend and I do not think that I am going to run while I am there. I will probably haul my running gear and foam roller with me (I did take all that to Michigan with me last weekend but did not use it at all) but I am 95% positive I am not going to use it. 

But then starting next week my break is over and I need to get out of my ”yeah, I can skip the run, it is not problem, I have my whole life to train so one workout won’t make a huge difference” (except that if I say that to myself twice a week it is going to make a difference) and “I will get back at it in November when Michelle starts coaching me again” state of mind.

Btw, I have four bikes now. I bought that Walmart bike to commute on on Monday. And my home trainer finally arrived. So that’s exciting.
It is a good thing that I do not have any furniture except for a mattress and a bed stand because then it would not fit into the apartment.
I now have all my stuff with me in IL and do not sleep under two towels anymore. I have more than one pair of business casual pants and more than two shirts to wear to work.
And I have an appointment with a PT for my ITB treatment on Monday. I hope he is as good as my German guy.
So everything is going to go splendidly starting next week!