Set yourself up to fail.

When you are injured the best feeling in the world is completing a run without pain. I've been feeling pretty good since finishing the half. Which I think I can attribute to my lack of running and new found love for cross-training. This week I started up my Bellingham Bay 1/2 Marathon training program. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because I wrote out exactly what I would exercise and eat each day this week.

Here is an example for Monday:

Exercise: 
Run 2 miles (easy pace), 1hr cycling class
Eats:
Breakfast- Overnight oats
Snack-Apple with sunflower seed butter
Lunch-Veggie burger and 1 slice GF bread with salad and a date
Snack-Trail mix
Dinner-Pasta with veggies
Dessert-4 Chocolate covered banana bites

Dinner last night was a veggie kabob (Trader Joe's) baked Tofu (TJ's) and a mini salad (my garden! minus the tomatoes). Pasta seemed too heavy for an 8 o'clock dinner time. So I only went off the food plan a little bit, my biggest goal with this is to stop eating soooo many sweets (and curing my sugar dreams) and yesterday I did pretty well.

The problem that I'm facing now (and faced when I was training for my first half) is that my schedule doesn't always lend itself well to recovery time. I worked yesterday morning so I worked out last night after my physical therapy appointment. Cycling and a 2 mile run is a pretty good workout, so today when I woke up (I work this afternoon) and went for my planned 3 mile run it was kind of rough. My legs felt like lead for a majority of it.... and of course my calves started screaming after about mile 2.5. So I walked it out. It feels discouraging when three weeks ago I ran 13.1 miles straight and this morning I can't even make it 3 miles. That is one of the biggest things I've learned about running, there are soooo many factors from hydration, fuel, recovery, sleep, weather, to your general state of mind. Just when you think you have captured the perfect run the next time you get out there running reminds you that in this relationship it has all the control.

So I'm looking at it this way, yeah I didn't have a great run this morning, even though the weather was perfect, but the only one I have to blame is myself. I can't forget that just because I'm feeling good it doesn't mean I'm not injured anymore. There is a reason that the turtle wins the race every time, he is smart and paces himself.

Also, while I was on my run I was thinking about how my 17 year-old self (I could have put in any age under 23 here) would be shocked by the fact that I was up and running 3 miles before 8 am. I was more likely to sleep until 11 in my school days.

Here is the basis for my training program (This is the original but I'm adapting it from the blog No Meat Athlete a bit to fit my needs)

The numbers under the days represent miles. I'm starting from the very beginning because I really need to get back in to the habit of running again (even a short time off is enough to set you back). I'm going to be incorporating strength training as well because I have the Warrior Dash coming up shortly in July!

If you haven't stopped reading by now... 5 points for you!

Today is the first day of Summer and Summer is the time to be reading!!! The weather is actually cooperating! The sun is out the weather is warm. I'm putting together my annual Summer reading recommendations and a Summer reading plan! Have you noticed I like plans? And lists....

Here is last years Summer reading recommendations....
Summer Reading 2010 
Declaration of Reader Independence