Man, what a week that was. A lot of stress coupled with not enough sleep or nutrition makes for a very cranky Amara. I hope to get some of that on track in the upcoming week.
So my diet has primarily consisted of mushy things, like shakes, scrambled eggs, yogurt, pudding, soup, etc. I’ve grown quite tired of soup and mashed potatoes so this week is a dairy rotation. I’m a few days in and already sick of it. I wish I could juice but the acidic components of any food I eat really hurts my mouth.
Because of my adjusted dietary habits, I’ve also noticed a bit of a downturn in my training. The olympic-distance triathlon is definitely out of the picture now, when coupled with the inability to fully train along with the impending race date, in addition to all of the travel fees. I see that there’s a local sprint triathlon in Kirkland scheduled for the end of the month if I still want to get a race in before the season is over. I don’t know if I can attempt another open water swim with no lake training but I feel like it should be easier than ocean swimming. Oh well. If I decide to register, it will be pretty close to the race date. Maybe I can join a meetup group for a weekend refresher course in open water before I consider it.
Speaking of races, I have a 10K on Sunday that kicks off my season — the Athleta Iron Girl 10K at Green Lake. It’ll be my first time running at Green Lake, my first 10K race in more than a year, and my first race in general since the LA Marathon.
I’m really looking forward to toeing the start line again. I’ve been trying to implement some of the things I’ve learned from the Chi Marathon book. I’m viewing this race as more of a tuneup since my first half marathon of the season is next Saturday! (Yup, that’s two races in 7 days!) I’m definitely ready for the 13.1…my last long run was 11 miles a few weeks ago, so I can consider getting in a 12 miler this weekend or just laying low. I guess I’ll play it by ear.
And on that note, I had one win of the week…I wrapped up my 100-mile goal. I did it while on vacation in Vegas, moving to a new city, and getting settled in to my new job. I think that these little incremental goals (run 50 miles, run 100 miles) really got me back into my groove.
Now if there were only a way I could get into the pool more regularly…I really need to create a schedule and just stick to it! For some reason, everytime I put together a schedule, it takes me two weeks to revamp it from scratch for some other plan. I found some swim clinics in the area, so maybe that’s something I can get involved with sooner than later.
Another win of the week: I received my first (external) donation for my marathon fundraiser! I haven’t done a lot to promote it yet — I’m thinking of sending out emails on the 1st and 15th of every month, and definitely doing more heavy fundraising during the holidays. I’ll probably give up Christmas again as well. It’s too bad that this race doesn’t overlap with my birthday…I was really able to take advantage of that time for my last fundraiser. If you have the means to donate a few dollars, please consider donating! Maybe for my next plea I’ll do a video blog about my employment journey and what Dress for Success means to me…that should be interesting.
Amara in Training 