There is no way to sum up this week but to say it sucked. By the weekend, I lacked the motivation to get my weekend workouts in. It was a roller coaster of a week for me with an amazing high and some difficult stuff. All I can say is that it’s time to circle the wagons and find my motivation again.

The week started off amazingly! On Tuesday, I found out that I was one of the lucky people to be selected to run the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon! Knowing that there are so many tens of thousands that weren’t as fortunate has me feeling incredibly humbled and honored to get this opportunity. November is a long ways away. So, it would be so easy to dismiss any training failures.

However, I used the excitement over getting to motivate me to get out and run 4 miles! It was also my seconds straight mid-week 4 mile run under a 12 minute per mile average! Mile 1 got off to a slow start. I finished that mile in 12:10. Since I was able to overcome a similar slow start the previous Tuesday, I didn’t let it concern me. I made the switch to a 60 second walk break and kept moving along. I was wearing my 2015 LA Marathon shirt to celebrate getting into the NYC Marathon. So, I just let the good vibes roll in mile 2. This is my favorite mile of this route. I get to run through Old Town Pasadena, which always has lots of people out and about. Plus, the mile is pretty much downhill and flat. So, it’s a mile where I usually make up time…even if I don’t switch my walk interval. This held true again as it was my fastest mile of the night. I finished in 11:07 (more than a minute faster than mile 1!). I knew mile 3 would be a little harder…and it was. I started feeling a slight lower back pain again. However, this time it wasn’t enough to slow me down too much. I finished mile 3 in 11:51. As I crossed the end of mile 3, I was at 35:08. It felt a little slower than the previous Tuesday. However, I still had the possibility of keeping it under 48 minutes for the entire run. So, I kept the 60 second walk breaks. Although, switching it to a 90 second walk break is what my mind was screaming at each quarter-mile all the way to the end. I was slowing (which is typical). But, I really wanted to finish in under 48 minutes. So, I kept pressing on. All of that effort paid off as I finished in 47:35!

On Thursday, I went out to run when I probably shouldn’t have. This was a miserable run, pretty much from start to finish. At the risk of TMI, it was issues with my stomach that kept me from doing well. I felt crappy before I started this run. However, I thought, if I start going, it might get better. Boy was I wrong. I needed a pit stop at the Paseo Shopping Center around a half mile in. It didn’t get much better. I finished mile 1 in 12:27, a full 17 seconds slower than Tuesday. Because I was feeling so crappy, I decided not to switch my intervals in mile 2. Because the elevation is largely downhill and flat, I did improve my time over mile 1. I finished mile 2 in 11:54. It was a truly awful mile. At around 1.75 miles, I swore I was going to vomit. Not good. I got to 2.25 miles at the corner of the street I live. I knew it would be about another quarter-mile or so back to my apartment and I needed another restroom stop. So, instead of trying to run again. I just quit and walked as best I could back to the apartment. All I can say about this run is that I tried. That’s all you can do some times.

I think this song sums up what I needed to hear after such a miserable run.

I woke up Saturday morning with absolutely no motivation to do a run or go to the gym. I tried to find the motivation, but my body was plain exhausted. So, I took the day off. In the late afternoon, the wife and I finally made it out to see Zootopia. Have you seen it yet? If not, you absolutely must see it. So much awesome in one movie!

Try Everything by Shakira is a song that will be making it onto my running playlist this week for sure. I love, love, love this song! It is totally appropriate with how my week fared.

Speaking of songs that I’ll be adding to my playlist, Keep Breathing by Jody McBrayer is another one I’ve discovered recently that I’m planning on adding to the playlist. There’s something about adding new music that tends to help me come out of the motivation doldrums.

Time to turn this training cycle around. There is no day like to today to do it. I’m going to give it my everything to make week 7 awesome!