Rolling with the Punches

Sometimes the week flies by like you're just standing there, and other times it just creeps along like every second feels the equivalent of an hour.  When people are sick, and more specifically, when the whole house is sick, the week become the latter and is one endless episode of Groundhog Day - of sneezing, wiping, crying, and hoping for just a little bit of rest.  When you are the only non-sick person, you have to take care of everyone else.  Do all the things two people used to do and STILL get stuff done. The poor little man was so irritable that he couldn't be put down by himself for almost 3 days.  So that meant carrying around a 17 lb sack of potatoes pretty much everywhere I was for those days, while doing everything.  Talk about cross training!  Its not easy and I can't begin to imagine how this situation might play out with a larger family.  As always, I'm sure you adjust and that would become the new normal, but IT. IS. TOUGH. 

So when you are staring down at a week of running in which you plan to embark on your first of hopefully several 20 milers for the training cycle, it is rather ominous to have to run the gauntlet of sneezing, coughing, and sniffling people.  Even more so when you are forced to have your baby sleep in your bed because he can barely breath, let alone sleep.  So yea, it was not the ideal circumstances. 

Originally, I had planned on peaking my mileage around 70 miles on the week, with a few key workouts:

- A tempo run where the tempo portion was 6 mi at about half marathon pace
- A track workout as part of our DTP program
- The 20 mi long run

I got in 2 of those 3 and my 20 miler went really well, despite some pretty windy headwinds for the middle 10 miles.  And you know what?  I did what I could and that's about all I can ask for myself.  You just have to roll with it.  At the end of the day, I missed 2 runs, only 1 of which was a key workout (the tempo).  And while aside from the long run, it was the 2nd most important run of the week, so I felt bad for missing it, but you can't sit there and dwell on the past.  You move on to the next week. 

Things are looking on the up though, as everyone is starting to get healthier in the house, though the sickness does still linger and has me slightly worried of catching it on the tail end.  While I did get a slight cold, it is minor relative to what they had.  I still have a 6 mi tempo run planned (same workout as last week), so I will get that in, along with everything else (I hope).  That will hopefully put me back on the proper path and closer to another planned 70 mi week, but if not, I'm just going to make what I can with what I have. 

Every day/week/month can't be perfect.  It never is.  Plans are meant to be a guideline of the ideal and sometimes you just have to let go of the attachment to nail every workout and realize that the best you can do is the best you can do.  I know that a few unexpected workout misses isn't going to derail my training.  My commitment remains as strong as ever.  So I'm just going to get back on the horse.  Monday begins a new week and a new chance to start it off on the right foot.