Get it done

This was a good weekend.  For the first time in a while, I stayed mostly close to home, and while there was a little excess in the food, and one evening where a little too much whiskey disappeared, it felt like it recharged me.  I don’t feel so darned burned out.  It may only last a few hours into Monday morning, but it’s the first time in a while that I have not woken up with an “ugggghhh, not this again” attitude on a Monday.

Even though I hate the time change with everything in me, because it gets dark at like, 6pm now, and I’ll never see sunlight after work again for at least the next four months, it has been nice to get that extra hour of sleep.  My alarm clock which auto syncs the time actually changed last week, and since I didn’t know how to change it back, I just left it.  So I half shifted myself last week into the new schedule and slept in a little later.  Maybe that’s part of it – more sleep.  It’s not that I deprive myself, but a lot of 9 hour nights last week (last night was almost 10!!!) and something in me started like it had begun to heal.

Maybe it was also the taper.  While normally 17 miles in a week is pretty kick ass for me during non-half training season, it was a downright vacation last week.  This week is even better, with 3-ish today, 3 Wednesday, and 2 on Friday (if I even do this one – I added it to the program to keep my legs loose, we’ll see if I even feel I need it).  I also swam twice (even though the second time was short) and did weights once.  While I could have definitely done more hardcore crosstraining, I think with how easy the runs are coming, I’m not lacking in cardiovascular endurance right now.

I’m also taking a stand with this crappy eating I’ve been doing lately.  We’ve been going out a lot, I haven’t been tracking calories, and I’ve slooowly started going to brie and cracker snacks instead of carrot snacks.  I mean, I still adhere to a lot of the basic principles of healthy eating – grilled not fried, no mayo on the sandwich, salad instead of chips, etc etc.  However, it’s been a little too much volume for the quality, and a few not-so-good choices have slipped in there (hallo spicy cream sauce on my pasta last night making me feel craptastic).  No more.  This week (not even waiting til after the race, or a week after the race), we’re back to healthy, homecooked food for the vast majority of our lunches and dinners.  Even though SOME people can eat snack cakes and be fine, those of us pushing

I considered tracking this week, but I think I’m going to wait – the last thing I want to do is freak out at the calories I’m eating, eat less, and be weak for the race.  This week, the goal will be to focus on good, healthy choices in whatever quantities make me full, but not overfull.  Next week, I’ll begin tracking, but not set any sort of calorie goal per day.  The week of Thanksgiving (yeah, I know, great timing, right?) will be the first week where I aim to keep my calories at a certain level.  We’ll see how it goes.

Last week by the numbers:

Monday: ladder sprints (400m w/u, 400m @ 7.5, 400m recovery, 800m @ 7.2, 400m recovery, 1600m @ 6.8, 400m recovery, 800m @ 7.2, 400m recovery, 400m @ 7.5, 400m race pace, 400m cooldown)
Tuesday: off (I voted at least!)
Wednesday: 5 mile tempo run (47 mins)
Thursday: weights and a swim
Friday: off
Saturday: 8 mile run (1:18!  All paces this week under 10 min/mi! Woohoo!)
Sunday: short swim

And this last and final half training week:

Monday: 800m warmup, 4×400 @ 7.5 w/400 recovery in between, 800m cooldown
Tuesday: 30-45 min swim
Wednesday: 3 mile tempo run
Thursday: off
Friday: 2 mile run
Saturday: off
Sunday: RACE DAY BABY!!!

I’m also looking forward to supping on carbs the night before with Tricia from www.enduranceisntonlyphysical.com and some other bloggers.  Should be fun!

And on that note, I think that’s it.  No crazy nerves (though I am finally getting a little EXCITED, so that’s good), no overpowering inspirational and motivation speeches.   I’m just going to get out there, run the race I have in me that day, and see where I end up.  I have a goal, I have a strategy, but I also have the realization that this will almost assuredly not be my last half.  And the way to PR for me seems to just let go, be rested, have a good playlist to rock out to, and just get it done.

So get it done I shall.