It’s been a long couple of weeks to say the least. After 2+ weeks on the road I’m back in this tundra that is Columbus, Ohio. Aside from almost slipping on some ice outside of my apartment, it’s really nice to be home.
I landed in California Monday afternoon exhausted from the long day of traveling from Boston. My left knee continued to be a bother throughout the trip and an almost 6 hour flight to my connection in Salt Lake City didn’t help much. I was dehydrated, a bit hungover and the only food in me was a smoothie bowl I had at 8am and whatever the nice stewardesses would provide us on the plane. A lot of tiny Sunchip bags would be what would keep my from passing out.
But we were home. No one aside from my cousin knew I was coming. I greeted those that were home when my Uber dropped me off. My uncle from Oklahoma and my mother’s boyfriend. My mom wasn’t home so I waited for a bit while she returned from the dentist. I sat in the living area as she came in from the garage.
Got any coffee?
My mom looked back and the smile on her face told me it meant the world for me to be there. I was home.
That week ahead would be tough. 5am mornings to log into work and trying to fit in a week of milage where I could. I was not prepared to be back in California. My running gear? Tops: I had a T-Shirt I bought in Boston. The closest thing I had to “warm weather gear”? A brighton base layer. I had a couple or running shorts thankfully that I could cycle through. Some running shoes and a workout shoe. All my socks were long, warm weather ankle crew Injinjis. I had planned on getting a hair cut this coming week. A NB ball cap would be my temporary fix for this scraggly hairdo.
Thankfully my mom tossed me a couple tourist cotton tees. This would do while I was here. A crazy fit, but I’d do my damndest to get that fit off.
With school being back in session I worried about being able to find a suitable place to workout. Thankfully I had a friend that confirmed that the CMS track would be available for workout I had on the day. I’d only be here until Saturday so that would be all I needed. I’d fly back Saturday, race Sunday in Columbus and then come back the following week for the wake and funeral.
Wednesday’s workout felt weird. I’m not sure if it was the early work days or just general emotions of the week. I opted to shakeout that morning as I was just feeling off. It was nice to be home but the lingering aura of why we were here felt like an enormous emotional weight that I could just not shake. Also sleeping on an air mattress for two days will do that to you too. I tossed on a heavy cotton tee and split shorts and went off to the track after work.
8x1k w/ 200 jog recovery at 5:20 down to 5:10 pace. I was sure this wasn’t going to go pretty. I felt heavy out there. But cotton tee be damned this was a good session. Every rep finished exactly where I wanted and aside from a tight left side, this felt fairly comfortably all things considered. The weight wasn’t off the shoulders but this felt nice to get uptempo and not blow up in the process.
Splits: 3:19-19-17-18-16-15-14-12
The next two days I focused on trying to get as much milage ahead of me so I didn’t have to do much on the morning of my flight home Saturday. I would need just under 6 on Saturday. Easy peasy. Flight is all checked in. We’d be back in Columbus soon enough.
Late Friday night I received the news, by some miracle everything had come together and they were able to have the wake and funeral that coming Wednesday and Thursday. I reached out to my managers and made arrangements. I somehow was able to change flights to the following Sunday at my nearby airport at no additional cost. Somehow everything lined up. Family would be arriving throughout the week. I’d be off Wednesday through Friday to be with the family but this was sure to be a tough week.
I’m not sure if it was the combination of everything being confirmed or a night of drinks with the family and late bedtime but I was a shell of myself on Saturday. I met up with one of my closest childhood friends and I was just off. Even some mead and In-N-Out couldn’t fix me. I got home at 5pm and told myself I’d get out and run. Then I went down for a nap. Then it was 7pm and I told myself I’d get out and run. Then I didn’t. I felt so tired. I just stayed in bed.
It’s been a while since I’ve truly experience a bonk during a training block. But boy was that Sunday long run something. Low 60s isn’t too bad, but picking a route with no cloud cover on a sunny day made for a disaster of 2 hours. I guess I should’ve made that realization when I struggled in my opening miles. The goal was 6 miles at easy to moderate then 4 miles at 5:25-30, 1 mile easy, 5x 3minutes @ half marathon pace w/ 1 minute recovery. 6 went okay, albeit just a bit sluggish.
Then I started the workout. I felt like I was pushing harder than I needed to. This didn’t feel comfortable. Looking back now it was because I was running slightly uphill. I hit that first mile at 5:45 (5:31 GAP) and tried to push. I blew up, hard as I approached another climb. 6:19. Now the gap was 5:55 for that section but the wheels had completely come off. This workout wasn’t going to happen. I focused on just a moderate long run and that worked for a bit until I started feeling like I was going to pass out 3 miles out. The funny thing about out and backs are that you have to get back. They don’t tell you that. I left part of my soul on the bike path section between Euclid Ave to Benson. If you find it, let me know plz.
I was frustrated obviously but much of this was pretty self inflicted. I knew that I had a tough week but I really should gone out earlier and just been more responsible. But man, it was really hard to find motivation on a week like that. The miles were there, so it was just a week to have a short memory about. That was my stumble, just gotta get back on track.
On the bright side I got to test new types of fuel. Since I opted out of my ambassadorship with Nuun this year I figured it was an opportunity to test out new stuff. This Boston build would be the chance to lock in new stuff before deciding what to use for CIM later in the year. Huma gels and Tailwind were first up. No issues. Good.
Just under 65 for this week. None of this was particularly exciting. But I had a tough week ahead and maybe running would be the consistency I needed to pull me through it.
Beers and Miles 