Eye on the prize

This week has gone downhill since Monday's fanTAStic run.

Tuesday I was travelling for work, so took a rest day. My meeting finished early and I had great ideas of wandering round town or switching to an early flight. Unfortunately, my feet, my high heels and my boss had other plans, and I ended up going to a late meeting and getting home at about 9:30pm.

Our 800s on Wednesday were a disaster- my goal pace was 3:38 (for a 7:15 pace), but using the Macmillan pace calculator, I was planning to aim for 3:24-3:33, and my splits were 3:36, 3:45 (headwind, but still!), 3:38 and 3:31. OK, it's not so bad, but I wasn't feeling it. I felt slow, uncomfortable. I was irritable, I snapped at P. Also, 4 * 800 is not a workout! I got home feeling fat, tired and grouchy.

I looked forward to going to Masters on Wednesday night, especially as I missed Sunday and will not be able to go this Sunday. I don't want to lose the habit already! However, I had work to catch up on, and new stuff coming from the day before, and I didn't finish work til 10. This is sometimes the norm, and I get used to it- but MAN it was a shock to the system to this new, balanced lifestyle, Kate!

To top it all off, P unexpectedly had to go away for TWO nights! I didn't even get to say goodbye properly :-(

So I missed another workout. Yuck. I had a swim with C planned this morning, but I slept in and was late. I grumbled away to myself "stupid work. stupid pool. stupid kate." It was much better when I got to the pool, but I wasn't really feeling it, and was relieved to get out and get coffee after about 1500m! Can you say SLACKER!?!

Tonight I can't work out, as I am doing 14 hilly miles starting at 4:45 tomorrow, and don't want to do those on tired legs. Also I have chores galore to catch up on.

But sometime during all this, I remembered that I have to keep my eye on the prize. Although in the triathlon world, I am a big slackbum, in the real, normal people world* I am someone with a tendency to overdo things. The prize at the moment is not building swimming endurance or improving my speed in the pool. It's not losing 10lb (though my goodness I need to lose some of that!) or looking good in jeans. It's not totalling up my workouts and seeing a number over 10, or even a number over 7. No- it's a marathon. My marathon. So who cares if I missed some workouts? I didn't miss my key runs, and I'm going to be well-rested for my big run tomorrow. Who cares if I've put on a bit of pudge? It'll go, but I know the best thing for me is to keep away from counting calories until after April 28- even if that is 10 weeks away! So although I still feel fat and slow and lazy, I have some perspective. Phew.

I got an email from C the other day saying "I'm so dreading my long run this weekend. I feel so much better and so much less nervous about them when I run with you." Hmm. How bad do I feel? I have 99% decided to run Rotorua for me, but this makes me feel awful. We have only run long together twice, and she decided to do the race before I did (waaay before), but still.

Anyway- I can't wait for my run tomorrow. I have 2:15 to do my 14miles, but the route is quite hilly, so I could be cutting it quite fine!

*I saw a survey today where 56% of city dwellers in NZ claimed to workout 5 times or more a week! Uh.. Yeah right!! I know maybe ONE person outside the running/tri/cycling community who comes close. Maybe if walking 20 minutes to work counts, but still...