My Funky Week (and my plans for the rest of 2009)

I've been in a week funk. Ever since I came back from my San Francisco trip, the stresses of life have just gotten to me, and it finally caught up to me this past week. Last Sunday, I went out for a 10 mile run, and when I finished, I just felt exhausted. I didn't feel physically exhausted, I just felt mentally exhausted. I knew I had a lot of things going on, but usually I can just press through everything and it will just go away. Well, this time I realized early that I might need to just chill a bit. I took 3 days off of running, and then ran on Thursday. I felt much better than I did on Sunday, but still not like how all my runs usually are. I usually always come back in the house with a big smile on my face, shower up, and feel ready to conquer the world. Well, Friday it was evident why I was feeling the way I felt. I just went into a full downward spiral with my energy all day. By about 2 pm, I had the chills at work, and actually got ill in between seeing patients at around 6 pm. My last 3 hours of work on Friday were more grueling than any marathon I have ever been a part of... that's no exaggeration at all. I just kept telling myself, "You're nearly done... only 6 more...5 more....4 more patients" Chris and Julie finished up my last patient for me, and I got in my car (my body was so achy, I had to lift my legs in the car) and drove home. I was so out of it, when I opened up the garage, I didn't realize that I didn't park the car all the way in, and as the garage door came down, it hit my car.... kinda funny now, but at that time, I didn't give a shiznit... I just walked to my bedroom and collapsed. At least I now know that my body was fighting something... I thought I was just going into an abyss or something.. LOL.

Anyways, I'm still trying to fight this nasty bug, and I can't wait to get back out there and start running again. But with all my downtime, I have had a little chance to come up with a plan for my running for the rest of the year.

I have just started P90x, which is an extreme home workout program. (Thanks Chris for letting me have... I mean borrow the DVDs) There are 12 workouts in the whole program, but I only plan on doing 3-4/week.

Legs and Back
Ab Ripper
Chest and Shoulders
Core

I did my first workout last week, and during the workout there was a series of calf exercises in which it was burning so much that I felt like my calves were going to lock up... now.... the only other time I have felt this is during the marathon... hmmm... maybe I just have some weak calf muscles??? Yup.

I'm planning on running around 35-45 miles/week for the rest of the year, in combination with the 4 P90x workouts/week. If I do that, I will hit my goal of running 2009 miles for this 2009 calendar year. I truly believe that strength training, especially with emphasis on the core and legs will help me stay injury free, and who knows?? It might even improve my running. I realize that the main reason that I have had such big improvements in running over the past 3 years is because I rarely get injured... and now that I want to put more stress on my body as I gear up for bigger and better things next year, I need to focus on building a strong base, so that my body can handle it. I'm also at the lowest weight since high school, but I only run...I'm slowly looking like a pudgy Kenyan runner...LOL... and I want to get a little more cut in my build.