Both my big kids were home all week and youngest had her little two hour camp two days of the week, so I knew running would not be easy. I did manage to get out on Monday and Tuesday thanks to the Y child watch and Auntie Cinnamon respectively. On Thursday the Y fortuitously had a free dodgeball session that my big kids were willing to go to during my youngest’s camp, so I got a solid run in that day too.

It seems to be harder to run on weekends these days. Back when my kids were babies and toddlers weekends were when I got in lots of quality miles, but any more weekends are crazy with running around or spent trying to clean up the house or spending some down time with the family. Ditching everyone to run is way harder and something I often don’t feel like doing. And this weekend, with my usual long run buddy out of town, I skipped it. Oopsy!

The good news is that the next week was the one week this summer in which all my kids were at camp every day! Woo! So this was be a random relatively big mileage week and then I’ll go back to clawing and scraping miles together the rest of the summer.

In other news, besides the general fatigue and lame overtraining kinda nonsense, I think I had a migraine this weekend. I’ve never had one that I know of before. Woo. How exciting! Before that though, I scheduled an appointment with a sports doctor that works for the functional medicine department of a local hospital system. Coriander recommended him, so I’m excited to see why I keep getting these fatigue spells and can’t seem to train without getting slower and miserable. Sadly, I couldn’t get in until September, but I’ve waited this long, so whatevs.

Maybe the migraine is related or maybe it’s just one of the lovely things I’ll experience due to exciting perimenopausal hormones or maybe it’s just a random thing. Who knows. All I can do is roll with it for now — while wearing sunglasses and hoping my kids don’t shriek.

Week ending 6.25.16

Mon: 7 easy from the Y.

Tue: 7 at the park while Cinnamon hung with my kiddos.

Wed: Off. Son had baseball on Tuesday and we didn’t get home until after nine and all three kids were so pooped, so enjoyed a lazy day.

Thu: 6 easy from the Y

Fri: Off

Sat: 8 with 10 x 1:00/1:00 fartlek in the middle.

Sun: Off. We went to our friends’ for a birthday party and spent the day boating, swimming, and relaxing. Got home late again, so everyone was tired and needed another down day. I did clean up my dining room though and watch the Sunday morning political shows while snuggling with my daughter.

Total: 28. Yikes.

Week ending 7.2.17

Mon: 8 easy. Was going to do 10 but started to storm at about a 7.5 and started to imagine how dumb I’d feel if I got struck by lightning.

Tue: 7 hilly trail miles.

Wed: 8 miles on a rolling paved path.

Thu: 10 miles on the usual trails with some decent hills.

Fri: 7 trail miles. Felt headache around 6 but thought it was just a blip.

Sat: off. Headache back and feel sickish. Is this a migraine? Ew.

Sun: 10 with Mina. Reunited and it felt so good! Missed my long run buddy! Did paved path and roads. It was sunny and warm, but felt fine until we finished up the monster big hill and then my headache came back and I felt nauseous. By the end of the run I could barely keep my eyes open; the sun was hurting my face! Took ibuprofen and that took the edge off but definitely not feeling right the rest of the day. Not as bad as what some people get, but this shit is new to me. I could live without this experience!

Total: 50!

While it’s not what I necessarily want to do, I kinda feel like I should limit myself to five days a week of running right now. One, that gives me more time to devote to my kids who are home a lot more now that school is out and, two, it seems like a good idea in the hopes it will help with my fatigue. So far it hasn’t really helped with the fatigue, but I have been spending lots of quality time with my family, so that’s good enough reason for now. Plus, my youngest will be upping her hours in preschool substantially this fall, so why stress myself out now to get in miles when I don’t feel great and am not training for anything anyway?

In other news, holy HOT! Our air conditioner crapped out late last summer and we’re not big AC people, so we haven’t rushed to fix it. But this week was so hot and humid, it’s really bothered me. By the end of the day I am so cranky and over the heat. And is it me or is 75 degrees + 99% humidity way worse than 95 degrees + normal humidity?

Oh! And last Sunday I tripped on the trails about a mile into my run and I thought I was fine, but on Monday woke up with a very sore left shoulder and lots of tightness and discomfort on my right side, including sciatica which dogged me most of the week. But by the end of it, with nightly stretching and rolling, it was getting better.

M: Off

T: 8 on trails

W: 6 easy with daughter in the stroller. Saw hatched turtle eggs, dragonflies and a snake!

Th: 8 on trails again. Sciatica noticeably better!

F: 7 with 6 x strides on HOT neighborhood streets. The heat was … uh … oppressive, but I got it up enough to do strides! Go me!

Sa: 10 with Mina on trails. We decided it might be nice not to abandon our husbands with the kids on Father’s Day so we met up a day earlier than usual. HOT and humid, but once we abandoned the pavement for trails (duh), the effort got noticeably easier.

Su: Off to hang with the family.

Total: 39.

This was my first full week back home after our epic 8-day Disney vacation. Before we left, I was running anywhere from 35 – 52 miles per week, probably averaging in the mid-40s. I have not been doing workouts, just getting in whatever miles I had time for, with the occasional strides or light fartlek thrown in as I felt like doing them.

If you are new to my logs, I quit seriously training about two years ago, at the beginning of June 2015. It’s a long story, but ultimately I stopped because I was struggling with a severe case of overtraining. Over the next two years, I have had up and down days, weeks, months. Since 2014, as I train, my performance gets worse not better. I get more tired on runs, rather than feeling fitter. But it’s worse than that. I’ve been a little reticent to admit that my struggles with running are not isolated to running. Sometimes I feel good running and excited to train for something. Other days I am so exhausted outside of running that I can barely function let alone run.

As I age and my life changes, it’s hard to know what’s normal or not, but up until a couple of years ago, I never felt like this and so often and so persistently. When I first started feeling this way, I went to my primary care doctor (now almost 3 years ago!) and she was a little dismissive, especially when my test results did not show anything obviously wrong. My ferritin was a little low and with iron supplementation and backing off training for a couple of months I felt better, so I assumed it was just that. Then I thought it was just overtraining and with some time off I’d feel better. You’d think two years would be enough time! But apparently not.

So, I’m on a quest to find out if there’s something else going on. I’m ok if this is my new normal, but I want to know so I can adjust my expectations and manage my life to avoid periods of intense fatigue. Has anyone else gone through this? Any ideas?

Anyway, I felt ok at Disney for the most part. I only ran on the one day we didn’t go to the parks which I’m sure helped. But the week after Disney has been a struggle. I’ve felt sluggish and unmotivated on runs and exhausted, unmotivated, and crabby when not running. I didn’t push myself and “let” myself run a little shorter and fewer days than I normally would, which allowed me to cap off the week with a decent 10 mile trail run and an awesome guided 2.5 mile hike with my son later in the same day without feeling like I was going to collapse as soon as the kids went to bed!

My girls went to a camp in the mornings this week so it was just me and my son.

Mon: 6 miles with my son on his bike. We have so much fun! His bike is a little small for him though, so to do this more often I a) need to get him a better bike and b) figure out something for my girls to do.

Tue: Off. Felt so tired just getting out of bed. My son begged to go to child watch at the Y and yet I just did not feel up to running. Not normal! ha!

Wed: 7 miles. 1 mile with my son running with me to the track next to the Y, but the track was closed for construction. Lame! Dropped him off at the Y and did 6 more on my own with some drills thrown in to try to loosen up my stiff legs.

Thu: 6.5 miles. Son and I hit up another local track, which was a great way to get a run in. I did a mini-workout. I thought maybe if I REALLY ease into workouts that might help me. I did 2 x 200, 200, 400 at “5k” pace. 6:40ish seems to be what happens when I run a 5k and I’m not in shape, so went with that. Two sets felt like a lot. Yikes! But the good news is that the track seems like a great option as long as I don’t care if I get interrupted or don’t have my heart set on getting in a set number of miles. I think all three of my kids could have fun jumping in and out of the run and playing in the infield.

Fri: 6.5 miles easy.

Sat: off. Cleaned my stove. Woo.

Sun: 10 miles on trails + 2.5 mile hike.

Total: 36

UGH! I don’t know when I fell of the training log bandwagon, but I did. I’m just running and not training right now, so I’m not even sure if anyone will get much out of them. I’m really enjoying taking running day by day. I don’t have any goals or point to running, other than doing it because it makes me happy.

Instead of breaking down everything I’ve been doing, I’ll share this shot of the last six weeks of my online log:

The non-beige days are the only non-easy miles. Aqua spots is a tempo and purple are fartleks. I’ve thrown in strides on at least one run most weeks, and that’s about it. Easy pace is getting back to where it used to be before I had mono last summer (can’t believe it’s taken this long!) and I’m mostly feeling back to my old self after struggling with fatigue (low iron) late last year. My mileage has gone up and down mostly according to weather and kids being off of school. But I feel good and I’m enjoying it.

Ahhh. Last week of weird schedule before everyone goes back to school and I can be a runnin’ fool again! I feel like my energy levels are on the up and up since starting iron supplements after Thanksgiving. It took about 8 weeks last time, so I’m hopeful I’m just a few weeks away from being back to my old energetic self. I’m almost there, but still seem to get more tired than usual. Definitely better though!

It was very cold this week, but I still made it outside for all my miles. I have really been enjoying my carefree pace when I run outside by time. I usually run routes that I know are close to a certain distance, but not using a GPS lets me not worry so much about my pace. It’s so freeing! But the treadmill stresses me out because then it’s staring at me in the face. I will do it, of course, if I must, but if I don’t have to I won’t! So far, I’ve used the treadmill once this winter. This week temperatures hovered around 10 degrees for three of my runs. None of them were all that windy, so it really wasn’t that bad. I found a sock situation to keep my feet warm. Today, I have to say 14 degrees felt downright comfortable. I haven’t enjoyed cold weather running this much in years if ever! I’ll take it.

As for what’s next on my running agenda … I’m not quite sure yet. I’m waiting to get back on a regular schedule and a couple more weeks for the iron to work and then I’ll take stock of where my head is. I have a busy spring lined up (more on that soon!), but I’m itchy to at least make a modest goal for myself. Time will tell!

Mon: 8 easy at the park. Half in the light and half in the dark. Feeling better after being sick the day before.

Tuesday: Off. All three kids last day of winter vacation. Played and had fun!

Wed: 7 miles with 10 x 1:00/1:00 plus 2 x hill strides. Better! Ran outside while my daughter napped, back and forth in front of my house. Gotta do what ya gotta do.

Thu: Off. I have an ear infection of all things. Lame!

Fri: Feeling better. Went to the Y and ran 7 miles on the snowy roads from there.

Sat: 8 miles. Had my girls all day so we went to the Y and they played while I ran from there again. Roads were slightly less snowy, but the slipperiness started bothering my hamstrings.

Sun: 8. With my friend Mina on a variety of dicey surfaces. Finished off with a bunch of miles on the trails. Took her to see my chickadees. Did 8 in about the time we’d normally get in 10!

Total: 38

A quicky log! Holidays are crazy time for my family. As I’ve said before, every time I’ve tried to train through them I get injured, so I just don’t any more. The good news is, that with the pressure off and a low-key attitude about running, I managed to run more than I expected to during this time.

Week ending on 12.25.16

Kids were still in school through Wednesday, so that helped get more running in this week.

Mon: 8 from home while daughter was in preschool.

Tue: Husband was home so despite a busy day with kids’ school christmas parties among other things, I squeezed in 6 from home including some hill surges and strides.

Wed: Off

Thu: 7 miles under 8:00 pace. Solo run outside. Ooooo!

Fri: Date running with my husband. 6 easy at the park.

Sat: 8 easy from home.

Sun: Another almost 6 with my husband while Cinnamon made Christmas guacamole with the kiddos.

Total: 40.75

Week Ending 1.1.17

Mon: 8 miles. Group run with Mango, Ginger, Cinnamon, Ginkgo and some friends! So fun!

Tue: Off.

Wed: 7 miles in the dark with my husband while kids at Grandma’s.

Thu: 8 miles from home with 10 x 1:00/1:00 fartlek in the middle.

Fri: Off.

Sat: 13 with my old running club. Got to see lots of old friends!

Sun: sick … :/ Stomach bug hit our household.

Total: 36

Decembering over here like a champ. If I counted cookies as miles, I’d be in for some big PRs in 2017! But alas, I’m running when I can and feel like it and spending time with my family, taking care of stuff I’ve put off, and relaxing when I’m not. I used to love to bake and finally got my mojo back, cranking out dozens of Christmas cookies. My kids love snickerdoodles. I venture to say they might be the most underrated cookies out there. Wow, they’re good when they’re good! I’ve also baked loads of my grandma’s amazing chocolate chip cookies with oats and nuts. Mmmm. They are caramelly and so delicious! Between the fewer miles, the relaxing, and the cookies, I might be sporting a few happy pounds come January and I’m a-ok with that!

Hope you’re feeling festive too! What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

Mon: 8 miles with Jasmine on the roads.

Tue: 8 miles in the very cold with 6 x :30ish strides.

Wed: 7 miles on the roads. Felt better than I have in a while.

Thu: Off. Snow day!

Fri: 6 mile equivalent on elliptical (I go by hr and time – 55 minutes at 140-150 hr on the elliptical is about the stress of an easy 6 miles, I’d eyeball).

Sat: Had every intention of doing a longish run, but slept in. Played Super Mario with my son. Baked.

Sun: 6 on icy/snowy trails with Coriander and Cinnamon! Good enough this week!

Total: 35ish miles-ish

Just putzing along running when I feel like it. That’s my December running strategy. I do struggle with feelings of guilt sometimes still, when not running a lot or taking days off, but I know deep down it’s for the best. And with the weather iffy, it’s good to be flexible. I really rather not have to do workouts on the treadmill or fret over when the roads will be clear enough outside, etc. I’d rather just not run if it’s insanely snowy and make pancakes and cuddle with the kids. Sometimes we need ebb so we can flow, right?

Mon: 9 easy on trails with Jasmine and Marisa.

Tue: 8 easy on trails.

Wed: 8 easy with Jasmine

Thu: off

Fri: Snowpocalypse. We got almost 3 feet of snow. A lake-effect snowstorm parked itself right over my house and dumped and dumped and dumped. I had to shovel a lot and played outside with the kids which helped ease my guilt about taking two days in a row off of running.

Sat: Quick 6 in the afternoon outside in the winter wonderland. Stopped to check on the Fed Ex driver who was stuck in the snow when I passed him on my way out and still there on my way back! There was a single lane plowed, but if a car got out of that lane there was still lots of snow. Hardly any traffic though so running was fine.

Sun: 7 on the treadmill. First time I fired mine up in a while. I wanted to go out but my husband had a work crisis and was worried the kids would need attention that he couldn’t give. So I sucked it up and ran on the mill and listened to house music while I watched my son play his Wii. I think I dropped a 7:40 mile in there towards the end. Ooooo.

Total: 38

Last I left you, I was enjoying some planned down-time. After my Thanksgiving Day 5k I planned four days off, which meant I was back running on Tuesday. I planned for no workouts, just a few days of easy miles, which was perfect because just as I returned to running I got socked with a nasty cold. All is well though. I started liquid iron and with the rest, I’m already feeling energized. Hopefully, I’ll be back to full-throttle within a few weeks!

Mon: off

Tue: 8 easy on trails

Wed: 7 easy on trails with Jasmine

Thu: off. So sick. Boo.

Fri: 7 with my youngest in the stroller. Took a little adventure detour on some bumpy trails to see the chickadees. She loved it!

Sat: off. Spent the day venturing out to get a balled Christmas tree (the kind you can plant after Christmas) and volunteering at my kids’ school.

Sun: 8 easy on the roads in the afternoon. Chilly, but nice!

Total: 30

I turkey trotted with Cinnamon and we had a blast! I also had an epiphany. I thought it was stress or maybe the election. And then I thought it was because I backed off the gas pedal and not working like a maniac every day left me feeling sluggish. But when I raced the Turkey Day 5k on Thursday, I knew that feeling all too well. Low iron, people. Low iron is why I feel like I can’t make it through a day without a nap and how even coffee has stopped working. I feel foggy-brained, sluggy, and running felt like it was draining me. Luckily, it’s only been a few weeks (not coincidentally, my iron pills ran out about a month ago), so I’m hoping with a few weeks of liquid iron, I’ll be on the up and up. I had a CBC (no ferritin) done right after mono, so not sure my doctor will order another test. But I’ll probably go in just to discuss, whether the fatigue and slugginess might possibly be due to something else.

Whatever is going on, it was easy to take a mini-break from running and I didn’t feel the least bit guilty about it!

Anyway, here’s the week:

Mon: 9 easy with Jasmine on trails

Tue: 8 with 6 x :25 strides

Wed: off

Thu: 8 with 5k in 20:42. First mile was 6:29 and felt faster, but when I couldn’t help slowing down to 6:40+ throughout the rest of the race, the feeling felt so familiar. Based on training, I should be about a minute faster overall, but I don’t care that much about that. I just want to race and feel good doing it and not suffer from narcolepsy when not running! Frustrating, but probably an easy fix.

Fri: off

Sat: off

Sun: off

Total: 25

As anyone who knows me knows and anyone whose read any of my satirical posts on the election knows I’m a bit of a political junkie. But I have to say, without going into detail (if you really want to know my political opinions, feel free to email me), that this election rocked my world. I never expected to feel so thrown off balance by a result as I was this time and it affected me. I felt exhausted, stressed, scared, heavy, uncomfortable, angry, distracted and weirdly running was no solace. In fact, I just didn’t feel like doing it. I tried to do a tempo run on Wednesday and after stopping and starting for two miles, I just ran to my car. Forget it. Maybe it was the four hours of sleep. I don’t know.

As the week wore on, my running motivation improved and now I’m feeling more like my old self, more hopeful, more motivated to do good work than ever. Maybe it will help you, but besides “don’t be a dick”, here’s my other motto:

Build a bridge.

Whatever I say, whatever I do, will it build a bridge or will it burn the bridge down? I want to empower people and help people and inspire people and that feels more important today than it ever has before. I have faith in goodness still.

Week ending 11.6.16

M: Off – son sick and home from school.

T: 11 with 2 x 2 mile tempo: 7:05, 6:53; 6:47, 6:47. Happy with it!

W: 8 miles on trails

Th: 6 miles back and forth in front of my house. All I had time for.

F: My daughter needed a mommy/daughter day so I skipped the run to go to the park with her.

Sa: 11 miles with 10 x 2:00/1:00 fartlek in the middle

Su: 7 miles easy

Total: 43

Week ending 11.13.16

M: 8 miles

T: 5 miles (kids off school and ran at the Y during swim class)

W: 5 miles (failed tempo attempt)

Th: 5 miles with the stroller. It was nice out and I needed to catch falling leaves and talk about silly stuff with my daughter.

F: We had furniture delivered (had to frantically clean and be there for it) and I just didn’t feel like running anyway.

Sa: 10 miles with good company. Felt great and enjoyed it.

Su: Late night at family wedding and needed a day off of life.

Total: 33

Who knew something as simple as a tennis ball can work miracles? Well a tennis ball coupled with everything Poppy taught me about anatomy trains at Salty Camp and in her amazingly informative post on the topic. With their help I was able to deduce it was my QL muscle that was causing all the pain and tightness in my right side. I’ve had issues with this side since I had my second child. It’s sciatic nerve impingement causing the pain, BUT! It’s problems along the “Deep Front Line” that cause my pelvis to misalign, which in turn causes the sciatic pain. Phew!

I knew it was the likely deep front line because as my pain worsened, I was experiencing more symptoms of dysfunctional pelvic floor muscles than usual if you know what I mean. I also knew my psoas on the right side was part of the problem. So I started working on everything Poppy listed on that chain, and low and behold that QL was tiiiiiiight! OOOOWWWWEEE! That hurt, but after rolling it out I had instant relief! And was able to notice my glute medius and piriformis were also wound up in knots (probably compensating). I started my tennis ball, foam roller, and self-massage work on the preceding Wednesday and by Tuesday of this week I felt so much better!

I still had my crappiest tempo since I started tempos back, but that was due and it was a day before I got my period. I’ll tell you, as I get older, I experience more and more annoying premenstrual symptoms – moodiness, slugginess, can’t focus, short temper, etc. But I think I handled it fairly well and had a solid week despite it!

Mon: 7 easy on the trails. I’ve been so pooped on Mondays and this was no exception.

Tue: 10 with tempo. Wanted to do 2 x 2 with 2:00 jog between. My goal pace is HM effort, which based on my 5k last month is about 7:10 right now. And I’ve been averaging well under that every tempo, so … of course I now feel a good tempo must be the faster pace even though I know better. And I tried to remind myself of this during the workout, but … I was so bummed when my first mile was 7:11 and then the next 7:07. I did my jog and reminded myself that it was totally fine and still under goal pace! But then when my next mile was 7:04 and not 6-something I got mad at myself. But instead of being dumb, I gave myself a minute to get my shit together and then did my last mile and it felt fine and was 6:52 on the hilliest turniest part of my route.

I think what really helped me not become a total hot mess about it is that my rule for tempos right now is any workout that is four tempo miles with no shorter than 1 mile intervals with 1:00 jog per mile of tempo. So I can break them up anyway I want. I can do 3 miles with a 3:00 jog followed by 1 mile or 4 x mile with 1:00 in between each or whatever. I could 1.5 miles with 90 seconds rest if I want. So I still followed my rules and got in a solid workout even if it wasn’t exactly what I set out to do. (I’ve now officially spent way too much energy thinking about this tempo!)

Wed: 8 easy on the trails. So so so beautiful out!!!

Thu: off

Fri: 8 miles with 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2 fartlek with half-time jog rest. I felt great and worked hard on this. I still felt a little sluggy on the warm-up, but once I got going I felt fine. Only a little of the sciatic pain hear and there. Like tempos, my rule for fartleks is that I can do anything from 1:00 – 5:00 with half-time rest as long as the fast stuff adds up to 20 minutes. So I just make up whatever seems slightly more challenging than the week before, but I like to finish with shorter intervals to work on turnover when I’m tired.

Sat: 6 before heading to watch Syd take on Regionals, then 4 at regionals, mostly jogging with Cinnamon on the course after the races were over. So nice to spend some quality sister time together!

Sun: 7 back and forth in front of my house while my daughter’s slept and my son sat in the back of our SUV and counted my laps. It was raining a little and chilly, but he was such a trooper! He even joined me for a few half laps. Did 5 x :25 strides in the middle. Felt good.

Total: 50