This Usually Happens

So I am day one into my marathon training AND I am off my schedule.  This is pretty typical.  A slow start into my training is pretty consistent for me, and it does not always end badly. Though it did end badly most notably in 2004 at Huntsville when I walked across the finish line.  Also, I am slated to start my speed sessions tomorrow, sort of, but I am thinking on this and it is definitely not happening tomorrow.  I am currently getting up at 4:55 AM on Mondays and Thursdays and then at whatever dark thirty time I run on Saturday mornings.  I've stopped getting up early to get to  swim at the lake on Sunday mornings, though I need to get back into it.  I only have so many early mornings to offer.  For speed work, I would have to get up at at 4:30 to get to the park by 5:00 AM sharp.  With the way the rest of my days are going, I just don't have that fourth early morning in me.  At a distant, childless and less employed time in my life, I went to 5:00 AM swim practice a handful of times.  I say 5:00 AM, but I really showed up at about 5:20 AM whining and dragging.  The rest of the class was always on time and they had swum at least a mile before I ever got my toe in the water.

I always wondered about the rest of the class.  What was up with them?  Did they get in bed at 7:30 PM, were they chronically sleep deprived, were they waiting at the door at 5:00 AM when the gym opened?  Are they all insomniacs?  If they are all getting in bed at 7:30 PM, when do they eat dinner, when was the last time they went out for drinks with friends?  What is all of it?  What is their life?

Another word on speed sessions, and this is the most damaging bit of all.  I was running with my running group on Saturday when Chris, who is a great runner, said that I might not need to do speed work.  He said, and I quote, "You don't really need to do the speed work.  Just come out on Saturdays and run like you've beed running."  I love/hate it when people say things like this to me, because it does not take a lot of encouragement for me to slack.  I enjoy myself some athletic slacking, and though I sometimes feel guilty about it (though rarely), I really enjoy my sleep.  I only get bummed about my slacking when it all goes wrong at the race.

I dearly wish that I only needed four hours of sleep a night, because I would get in all my workouts and have super clean cabinets.  AS it is, I was up early this morning, I road my bike and came home to find that everyone else was still asleep, which meant I was able to pop back out for a run and then get back in to get everyone else started. This is my lull period at work, so while things are slow, I have one thousand dull house chores that are not worth talking about.  I did all these, then literally passed out at 2:00 PM when the kids were napping and I am going back to bed right now.

What is worth talking about is that I am using all my dull household chore time to break in my new fabulous loafers.  SO, today while I cleaned out the refrigerator, emptied the dishwasher and made the beds, my feet pinched.  It is a first world problem that I have a dishwasher and new loafers, so I'll stop complaining.