Y’all, there’s no good way to put it. My training in this final month has not been good at all. While it may seem strange to do nearly one month’s of training recap in one post, the month of May 2017 isn’t that month. Here’s a look back…

On May 2nd, I set out for my first run in my new Brooks Ravenna 8’s…

My Ravenna 5’s have served me well. However, I couldn’t find the same shoe to buy. So, I tried on some shoes and decided that the Ravenna 8’s were the way to go. My first run on the Ravenna 8’s was a disaster…

However, the disaster was not because of the shoes. In mile 2, I needed to use the restroom and, at before 6am, there were none for me to use on my route. So, by the end of mile 2, this run was over. I brought to a walk because that was the only way not to soil myself. TMI? Probably. But, true. So, this run ended much too soon.

I rebounded from that run by getting out on May 4th and finished all 4 miles! It did feel good to finish all 4 miles after failing to do so two days before. My morning runs have been rough. It’s hard for me to get out the door every time. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s the only way I’m going to find consistency. I was happy to have made it out the door for two early morning runs in the week. Unfortunately, that was the end of my workouts for the week. I got only 2 of the 4 on the calendar.

The next week, I wasn’t as fortunate. This is a record of my only run for the entire week. It happened on Thursday, May 11th. It was slow. But, at least I got out. As I write this post, I don’t remember why I missed my run on Tuesday that week. It was probably due to lack of sleep.

After missing another weekend long run, my goals for the 2017 Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon had changed. I really wanted to avenge the poor week and got out the door for 4 miles on Tuesday, May 16th. It was nice to have gone faster than the previous 4 miles. This was a week to find that joy of running again.

On Thursday, May 18th, I made it two runs for the week! The bad news was that it took me a little too long for me to finish all 4 miles. Let’s face it. Waking up was not something I was happy to do on this day. I remember having to really negotiate with myself to get out the door. As the time kept moving along, I decided that I’d only have time to finish 3 miles. That would have to be good enough. As I’ve been building this early morning running routine, I know that there will be successes and failures. Once I got out the door, it was actually kind of fun to run this 3 mile route once again! I had no time goal whatsoever. After all, I was running a different route. So, I had nothing to compare myself with. It did feel good to just get out and run. By the end, I wished I had made it out the door earlier so I could have finished all 4 miles. But, 3 is better than none.

On Saturday, May 20th, I fell victim to poor planning and missed out on the 15 mile run I hoped to do. Not only was sort on supplies I’d need for a 15 mile run, but Pasadena had 2 major events happening. First up was the 2017 Amgen Tour of California Bicycle Race. They were finishing less than a mile from my apartment! That meant they were closing down some roads. Also, U2 was performing at the Rose Bowl. So, I couldn’t run the route that takes me to the Rose Bowl. I had worked out an alternative for these. But, without any Gator Aide at home and a warm day and a phone battery that was too low to make it 15 miles, I didn’t have what I needed to finish all  15 miles. Excuses, excuses. I know. I need to do better. I did make it out for the finish of the Amgen Tour of California however. It was lots of fun to watch world class cyclists at their best!

By Sunday, May 21st, in the afternoon, I felt it coming on. I did not have the energy to get out and make up for a missed run. By the evening, I was just well enough to care for Colton. Both Brooke and myself fell victim to food poisoning. It hit Brooke first in the early evening of Sunday. I had a woeful night that lead to much worse for me by early Monday morning. I’ve never been more thankful to have in-laws that live only 10 minutes from us. They helped us out big time on Monday of last week by taking the boy off to day care so Brooke and I could let the food poisoning run its course. We were both wiped out until around 5pm(ish). By the time the boy got back to us, we were functional. However, I did not eat much on Monday. I needed Tuesday to recover.

Then, Wednesday, I got hit with a really bad cold and the boy woke up with a fever. When it rains, it pours. So, that wiped out, not only Tuesday, Wednesday, but also Thursday runs. I decided to listen to my body and give it the rest it demanded.

This past Saturday, I finally made it back out for a run! I really wanted this run and wrestled with how long the run should be and my run/walk intervals. I decided to go with the run 25 seconds, walk 95 seconds and deal with my finish time. The 6 miles were perfect. I was not 100 percent on this run. But, the run/walk intervals were perfect. In mile 4 I could feel the fatigue of so many missed runs. But, I persevered. As a matter of fact, by the end of mile 5, I decided to alter my intervals for mile 6. I really wanted to finish in under a 13 minute per mile average pace. By the end of mile 5, I was around 20 seconds over that pace. Since, my last mile is largely downhill and flat, I decided to go with a run 30 seconds, walk 60 seconds intervals and it worked well. I finished 6 seconds under the 13 minute per mile pace average!

It’s finally race week! At the end of this week, I’ll have 2 new pieces of bling to add to my collection! I’ve never been more happy to see a race week arrive. I may be sputtering to the finish of this training cycle. However, I am looking forward to joining the running community that will gather in San Diego this coming weekend for the Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon/Half Marathon and 5K! While my goals for this weekend have changed, I’m still happy to have the opportunity to get out and run again. San Diego will be awesome! It looks like we’ll have some really good weather for the whole weekend.

What I’m also looking forward to is finally entering into my training cycle for the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon! While I’ve been battling illness this past week, I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking over this training cycle and looking at how I can make the NYC Marathon training cycle my best yet. I have a plan in place and can’t wait to begin the process. Actually, it all starts this week. Since I know I won’t hit my goal of a 2:35:00 half marathon, I’m approaching this race as a training run where I get a medal. It’s going to give me an indication of how much work I need to do in order to hit my NYC Marathon goals.

It feels amazing to have made it to another race week! Can’t wait to Rock n Roll the streets of San Diego!