Weekly recap (11/21-11/27): Facing reality

29 Nov

KIAWAH HALF TRAINING WEEK 8

After several months of decreasing race performance and basically only having two pace modes (easy and easier) with a complete inability to push my pace past those at all, I've decided to visit a doctor. Something is off and I need to start paying attention the signals my body is giving me.

Yes, I have asthma, allergies, and chronic sinusitis. Yes, I've had a crap-ton of stress this year. Yes, I've had a lot of sinus and respiratory infections. And yes, we've had some really poor air quality here recently because of the forest fires in NC. But it seems like there might be other issues. Maybe there aren't. Maybe it's a perfect storm of cumulative issues that just ate away at me over the past year and a half. Or maybe it's something else.

I've been reading up on possible causes and it seems like I've got a laundry list of symptoms for anemia plus I'm part of a few groups that are high risk for it (women of childbearing age, runners, and vegetarians - I'm mostly vegetarian with occasional seafood). Obviously, I don't want to self-diagnose, so I'm heading to the doctor to get some answers.

Good runs are becoming more and more rare for me. And while my pace may appear fast(ish), that's such a relative and individual thing that I can't really judge my health by pace. The fact that no matter what I do I can't push beyond my easy pace (which ranges based on weather and asthma from somewhere around 8 (rare) to somewhere between 8:30 and 9:15 (much more common)), just seems to indicate a problem because even with asthma, it wasn't always like that.

I'm so tired most of the time and putting one foot in front of the other gets harder and harder by the week. This past week my fatigue was so bad that I only managed three runs, one bike ride, and no barre classes at all.

Against my better judgement, I ran the Turkey Day Run 5k and couldn't breathe the entire way. It was grossly humid that day with 92% humidity and 65 degrees at the race start - humidity is my asthma's kryptonite - but I still felt so exhausted and just couldn't push past that easy pace. So incredibly frustrating. I logged yet another hideously slow and miserable race time and decided I've had enough of this nonsense. And that's what prompted the doctor appointment.

There is zero reason that at this point in training that I should be racing as slow/slower than I was when I first started running (I was faster when I was pregnant, for goodness sake!). I'm not overtraining and while I'm also not training hard, I should at least be maintaining my speed, not losing it.

Workout summary

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Easy run - 5.13 miles (8:28 pace)
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Turkey Day Run 5K
Friday: Family bike ride - 6 miles
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Long run - 10.02 miles (8:52 pace)

Totals

Running miles: 18.25
Total runs: 3
Biking miles: 6
Barre/strength: 0
Total workouts: 4

With all of that, Kiawah is up in the air right now. I'm going to gauge how I feel over the next two weeks and decide next Thursday or Friday. In any case, Kiawah is no longer a goal or PR race. If I do run it, it will be easy pace (whatever that means for that day), but those PR goals will have to wait until I'm more healthy. It pains me to run yet another race with a slow time, but sometimes life happens.

At least most days it's cool enough to wear capris instead of shorts

If Sunday's run was any indication, I may be okay to at least slog through Kiawah. I felt much better on Sunday than I have in a while. Not great, but I wasn't miserable for the whole run. Good runs are not nearly as good as good runs used to feel, but "not miserable" is something.

So that's where I am for now.

But enough whining from me...last week was also Thanksgiving and while I've had an incredibly rough year, there are still plenty of things to reflect on and be thankful for. This year was quieter than most Thanksgivings since we didn't have any family in town, but it was nice to have five days away from work to relax.

Oh, and we have a new foster/trial adoption dog! Her name is Macy and she's from Family Addition Dog Rescue in Charlotte, an absolutely wonderful rescue organization that we used to volunteer with when we lived there (and it's where we got Autumn Beagle).

Macy! It's hard to get a good picture of her because she's so slinky and skittish right now

Macy initially caught my eye because she looks so much like our sweet Stella Blue (who passed away almost a year ago). We've been following her story with the rescue for the past several months and met her back when we were in Charlotte for the hurricane evacuation. She was clearly abused in the past and is quite skittish, but so far she's fitting in well to our pack and has claimed at least one chair, a footstool, and a dog bed for herself.

LAST WEEK'S ART PROJECTS

B is still at it - he created more artwork this week. I think the ones he painted this week look like a butterfly (the purple one) and a Christmas tree (the not purple one). And I sketched an idea for an oyster shell necklace (if I ever get around to making it is an entirely different question). But sketching is fun even if I'm dragging my feet on actually making these things.

And that's my week. Not very exciting in the workout department, but otherwise a good week. Hopefully the doctor can figure out my issues and I can get back to speeding up instead of slowing down.

How was everyone else's Thanksgiving? Did you run a Turkey Day race?

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin' for their Weekly Wrap post. You can check out all of this week's posts here.