Week 17

At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.

Frida Kahlo

I love the holidays. And when I say I love the holidays, I mean... EVERYTHING about the holidays. Of course, I love the focus on family and friends, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I also LOVE wrapping christmas presents, looking at my lit up christmas tree as I relax on the couch, christmas parties, and those white chocolate covered pretzels (good god I ate about 4 pounds of that shit on christmas eve). YES, I know it's all wrapped up in consumerism and blah blah blah bullshit. But, it's just a fun time of year. I love to celebrate EVERYTHING. So, it's only fitting that I love the holidays.

Another reason I love the holidays is because it's kind of like the last stop for me until April. From January 1st until April 15th, I will be practically chained to my desk (and this year, I suspect to be worse than usual). So, it's like the final blowout of enjoying extra time off until April. THERE WILL BE A VACATION AT THE END OF APRIL/BEGINNING OF MAY. MARK YOUR CALENDAR, KoB.

Which makes me pretty happy that the bulk of my training was done BEFORE the shit tornado of Tax Season starts. And while I've still got about 3.5 weeks of HARD training left, I'm already used to running 60+ miles a week, so it's not going to be a hard adjustment to try and fit my running into my schedule.

ENOUGH DRIVEL.

Another fantastic week of training. I don't know what the fuck is going on... but, I am in a groove, folks. My greatest fear is that I've peaked too early. I practically ask everyone I come into contact with if they think I've peaked too early. Obvi, this is just my brain trying to find something to freak the fuck out about, because I can't just be chill and cool about my training. NOT WITH 6 WEEKS TO GO.

The week:

Speedy: Ladder. 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 800, 400, 200

Ridiculous: 7 mile drunk/hungover run.

Long: Ehhh... not really a long run, but a 13 mile tempo run.

Total: 60ish.

I had never done a ladder workout. NEVER. I was kind of excited to do it, I figured it would go by fast and be fun, because there's a lot of thinking involved and trying to keep things straight. But, alas, it was not that much fun. It wasn't awful, either though. I pretty much hit all my marks (boring) but, the most notable thing is that it was also my first time to do a 200 and it was the WORST. OMFG. My short little legs can't turn over fast enough to get up to cranking speed.

Insert cute dog gif.

On Tuesday, I met up with Coach and Cheryl for a Cocks Bowl Game Viewing Party and ended up drinking wayyyy too much. Go Cocks! And then I was supposed to meet The KoB at 5:30 outside my place to get my run in. I got home from the bar at 4:30 and decided to take a little "nap." The next thing I knew, I woke up at 5:30, in a panic, and immediately started to head outside to meet The KoB and tell him that I just needed 5 minutes to get dressed. When I opened my door he was standing there. After frantically getting dressed and heading out, about 3 minutes into the run, I realized that I was extremely hungover. My head was pounding and I felt like I could vomit at any moment. Luckily, I kept with it (I had already hijacked The KoB's run, so I didn't want to pansy out on him) and about 3 miles in, I started to feel okay. This is why Amy shouldn't day drink.

My long run was a tempo run at the RUN BITCHES HALF MARATHON (more on this event later). I was super, duper nervous about this workout. It felt like I hadn't done a tempo run in forever and I wasn't sure how 13 miles at marathon pace was going to feel. Surprisingly, it didn't feel all that bad. It was challenging, for sure... but definitely do-able. That run was a HUGE confidence booster. HUGE. Now, all I gots to do is run twice that in a few weeks. EASY.

 Me, bitching to The KoB about the race course.