As promised last Sunday, I am now going to start posting weekly training recaps in an effort to help hold myself more accountable and because I enjoy the practice of sitting down and writing, I just sometimes lack the discipline to make it happen; so these posts will hopefully kill two birds with one stone. I am currently training for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon  and should be in pre-season prep for Ironman Santa Rosa. So here it is The Good, The Bad & The Ugly:

Monday – Planned an easy 3 miles with Scarlett followed by some core and strength work  Happy to report that Monday was a success!

Tuesday – Tuesday is DRC night and my training group had Intervals.  40 minutes of 2 min @ 9:20 – 9:43 pace with 2 min recovery.  DONE!

Poor Trang puts up with me during our DRC Group Runs.

Wednesday – I had planned for swimming with some core and strength work.  Knowing that 2 of my friends would be at Dallas Aquatic Masters that evening, I opted to hold off swimming until the evening.  I dutifully packed up my gear in the morning and blocked off my calendar with the time I knew I would need to leave work by to get to practice on time.  And then life got in the way and things had to happen at work which meant I missed swim practice and didn’t get home until after 8:00 pm.

Thursday – Thursday called for an easy pace run for 60 minutes.  My work day on Thursdays start at 7:30 am with rounds so I’ve been inclined to wait to do my training in the evening.  Despite my best efforts I was still at work at 6:30pm.  After running some errands I finally made it home and out the door at 8pm, but I got this workout done!

Friday – Friday, Friday, Friday…  Again I planned to swim with Dallas Aquatic Masters.  My dog had to be dropped off at the vet early for surgery so again I had decided to wait for the evening practice at SMU for my swim.  I had a really great plan to leave work on time and then well something else came up that required me to be at work at 7pm and that meant no swim practice.  Post surgery my poor dog was a mess and has to wear the cone of shame so I ended up carrying 40lbs of Welsh Corgi up and down 3 flights of stairs 3 times that evening in an attempt to get him to do his business.  By the time he was settled I was pooped and nothing was happening.

Cone of Shame

Saturday –  DRC Long run day!  Today was the Love the Loop 15K/5K, one of our club races, and I was signed up for the 15k and to volunteer at registration.  After Friday I was tired and my legs weren’t feeling it.  I seriously considered bailing on both the race and my volunteer duties, but I knew Trang would be there and that I’d have to write about it so I went, although I was late for my volunteer gig.  This was by far one of the worst runs I’ve had in awhile.  All my trouble spots (IT Band and Piriformis) acted up.  This was supposed to have been a time trail run at 10:16 min/mile pace, but managing a 12:00 min/mile was a stretch and I am slightly concerned about some lingering aches and pains.  I knew I was tired and didn’t feel 100% as evidenced by the hour long nap I took post race and the fact that I was on board for the 8:30 pm bed time my niece suggested for our sleepover last night.

Sunday – Sundays are for biking!  I knew I had my niece so my plan was for a spin bike workout, I still need to get the back tire on my bike swapped out so I can use it on the trainer.   What I didn’t plan for was a last minute invitation by the Pastor at work to speak at our annual memorial service or  that I would end up rescheduling my service appointment with my internet privder no less than 3 times this week and end up with an appointment at 6pm on Sunday.  Let’s just say that my bike workout didn’t happen.   I did however get my salad prepped for tomorrow and made my steel cut oatmeal and a big batch of chili, so at least I’m set for healthy meals this week.

So the good – I hit all of my planned runs and up until Saturday was feeling good about my efforts to build some strength and manage my IT band issues.  The bad – I missed all my planned swims and bike.  The ugly?  I am still without 2 key positions at work which necessitates my picking up some of that load, I’m not complaining its just how life is right now and that concerns me and the impact on my ability to train.  There are some things in my line of work that have deadlines set by regulatory agencies and missing those deadlines can be detrimental to the organization and my professional license, plus I can’t easily walk away at the end of the day if one of my residents or family members needs something. I am really feeling the pressure right now, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I fear its a long tunnel.

Anyway, I’m not throwing in the towel just yet.  I spent sometime stretching and on the foam roller tonight and I’ve done a lot this evening to try to set myself up to have a good week even though my schedule will be crazy – work dinner on Wednesday, early morning rounds on Thursday and early morning staff meeting on Friday.

So there you have it the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this past week.  I am choosing to be optimistic that something great things will happen this week!