Tuesday: Speed Sessions and If I Have Mastitis Again I am Going to Set Myself on Fire

So last night I was in bed at 9:00 PM like a champion.  I set my alarm clock for 5:15 AM, worked a bit of a crossword puzzle (like I do), and was asleep before 9:30 PM.  I was dismayed, however, to wake up at 3:00 AM.  I fed Baby G, and then, of course, could not go back to sleep.  So, I checked my email, pumped (just because I had the time and really need a bit more milk in the bank) and then decided to get up and get my hot tea and glowing green smoothie going.  I put on all my warm weather running clothes and started defrosting the car.  It was absolutely freezing outside, at a breezy 31 degrees when I left the house.

Now, I will say that I recently invested in the Lululemon Run: Stay on Course tight, and it is super fabulous.  It has a wind cutting component as well as tech fleece.  The waist band is high so you never have any part of your stomach exposed to the cold, and it has reflective strips and lots of compact pockets.  My other pair of winter running tights were the ones my parents bought me in college, and they had a hole in the knee and no wind cutting fabric.  Today was my first training run in the new tights, and while they were a splurge, I must say that they were well worth the expenditure.  They felt great. Also, they stayed in place the entire workout.  I never had to tug at them; not once.

Today was the first day of speed sessions and our coach, Mark Miller (the great!!) gave a brief lecture about running slow most of the time and running fast one day a week.  It is always so eye opening to hear this type of logic, as it is so counterintuitive to the way I operate.  I feel like I need to go long and hard all the time, but in reality this only hurts your performance on game day.  So, as I am training for Boston, I am dedicating myself to slower Saturday runs and fast Speed Session runs.

When I trained for Boston in 2010, I tried to do hard, fast long runs on Saturdays and it was so demoralizing.  Some weeks, I performed well and other weeks, I fell apart or quit early in complete dejection.  SO, I am going to jog it this year and not worry about anything except Tuesday morning Speed Sessions.  I am taking all my advice from Mark Miller.

After Mark finished his lecture, we all readied ourselves for a two-mile time trial, the speed of which determines how fast we will train during out speed sessions.  I ran my two miles in 12:58, which actually seemed rather unimpressive to me.  I feel like I ran my 2010 time trial speed session faster, BUT WAIT!!!  I just went and checked my records and I actually ran my 2010 time trial in 13:03.  I improved.  Who would have thought it.  I am just amazed.  Is it in spite of the baby or because of the baby??  Ahhhh, babies.

Now, whilst at the speed session, I ran a two mile warm up, then we moved to an 800 fast pace run, before doing some kinetic stretches (I think they are called), where we do all these things that make us look like Tennessee Walking Horses.  I never see the use of kinetic stretching, but I am such a believer in Mark Miller, that I will do it.

Now, because of my husband's work schedule and the great difficulty of getting ready for work with a wily three year old and a newborn, I had to run right off the track after my time trial.  There was no time for a cool down except a jog to the car.  Overall, the speed session was a great success, and the time worked out, so it looks as if I can keep going!!

Once in the house, I turned on the coffee maker and started feeding the baby and getting everyone ready for their day which is when I noticed a hardness.

It was a huge bummer as this is the fourth time in this breast feeding cycle that I have gotten mastitis.  It is the way Baby G nurses and apparently this is just going to keep happening.  It is the last thing that I have the time or patience for.  Ideally, this whole mastitis awfulness will resolve itself in the night and tomorrow will be free and clear of mastitis.