counting down the days...

wow what a week it's been!! last week i wrote a wonderful post about overtraining and listening to your body and the next day, BAM. i was exhausted. like emotionally, physically, mentally wiped out. it was awful. i was at work and i couldn't concentrate on anything but how tired i was and how i was supposed to run 9 miles that evening. so i carbed up and pretended that i was fine.. but i wasn't fine at all. next thing you know, i'm driving home from work and i tell myself, "jenna, there is no way you will be able to run 9 miles today.. go to sleep!" so i made the decision, although extremely hard, to get in bed when i got home and take a nap. i slept from 5:30 to 7:30 and woke up extremely emotional but my body was feeling good. so, in order to ignore those emotional feelings, i put on my gym clothes and headed to the gym. i figured i could do something easy.. err... simple?... like abs and then i'd attempt a short jog on the treadmill. so i'm getting dressed and like i said, i was not emotionally stable, and i just started crying. then i got in my car and started driving to the gym and i started crying some more. then i got to the gym and cried some more. WHO CRIES AT THE GYM!?! (obviously this girl)... but then i started working out and feeling a little better. i attempted to run on the treadmill and i could only go 1.5 miles before i had to stop. i felt defeated. completely and utterly UNmotivated. like i didnt want to run. me. jenna. not wanting to run... hmmm...

so i got home and slept and thursday was an "ok" day but my rest day so i rested up well and woke up early friday morning to go to p4l for my class. i was even unmotivated going to that.. which is super weird because i'm usually excited for it. so i get there and i'm pretty sure i was acting different.. then i spilled my guts to the trainer (poor guy) and he talked it out with me for a bit. i left there telling myself that i would make it a good weekend and i would not let anything get in the way of running at least 10 miles on saturday. friday evening i went down to escondido to babysit my favorite little man, jeremy, and before i did, i ran three miles. my legs hurt so bad when i was running. but guess what! i did it. then i had some good chats with some good friends and i went to bed friday night feeling great.

i woke up saturday morning knowing i needed to run 10 miles. i have never run further than 8 so i was super nervous. i ate my carbs, my energy and got ready to go. i left my house with no real route mapped out. i knew i could run to pechanga and back and that would be 10 miles. i thought about running to old town and back and seeing if that would make me hit 10. instead i ended up running down temecula freakin' parkway. WHY did i do such a thing?? because i had to pee after mile 4 and so i ran to in n out and went to the bathroom... what a dork! but honestly, i ended up running 11 miles. and i felt absolutely AMAZING when i was finished. actually amazing doesn't describe it well enough. i felt fearless, empowered, on top of the world. and i now can proudly say i plan on HANDLING that half marathon on june 5th :)

so what now? today i ran 8 miles, easily, and i once again feel ready for this half marathon. i plan on running 5 miles friday and 12 miles saturday. the hardest thing for me is post-run eating. i never eat correctly AFTER i run and i end up pooping out and feeling physically exhausted about 3 hours after the long runs. something i will definitely work on starting this weekend.

when i signed up for the race, i gave myself a finish time of 2hrs 30mins but i decided on monday night that my goal is..... ahhh i don't wanna say it because then i'll have to do it..... 2hrs 15mins. yikes! well there are only 18 days left of may [half] marathon madness.. i got my corral # today (can i just say i hate that word, corral, it makes me feel like i'm part of a heard of cattle or something). now i just need to plan for that weekend. when i want to pick up my packet, where i'm sleeping the night before the race... there's a lot more to all of this than i thought!

so that's where i stand as of now. i sadly have no pictures for y'all today. and it's late and i'm tired so you get nothing. :) until next time....