Becoming a Carnivore

This week was one of milestones. I reached the half-marathon distance in my training runs, I've run out of weeknight daylight hours and I'm pretty sure it's time to switch from capris to full length running tights. Also, I skipped my first run this week. I'm not proud of missing those 3 miles but it was raining AGAIN and I swear I was starting to look like a raisin.

A challenge arose this week too. I tend to have back problems and Thursday morning was greeted with another one. These "episodes" tend to come out of nowhere and this week was no exception. The good news was I had two consecutive rest days on the schedule but the bad news was I needed to be in decent enough shape to run 13 mile by Saturday morning. The next two days included a fair amount of muscle relaxers, pain pills and anti-inflammatories. My friend Jennie (part of the Team Raegan cheering section at Disney) came over Thursday night in the midst of my self-medicating. I heard from her on Friday about my amusing conversation skills the night before. I vaguely remember her being there.

So Saturday morning before I left for my run, I fixed myself a breakfast consisting of a breakfast bar, a glucosomine pill, 2 ibuprofen and a prescription anti-inflammatory - the breakfast of champions. Or at least the breakfast of champions with debilitating back pain. The distance itself wasn't too bad. During the last 4 miles my back gave me problems but I made it. I then went home and spent some quality time with my heating pad.

Another odd thing I noticed this week has been my change in appetite. I generally avoid red meat but since I started logging some serious weekly mileage I found myself craving cheeseburgers (the good kind - McDonald's is still a forbidden zone for me). Before my training, I might have a burger once or twice a month. This week alone I had 2.

The week ahead includes adjusting to daylight savings time and dark runs. It's also the halfway point of my training schedule. At this point I just have to increase my mileage 4 more times - to 15, 16, 18 and 20 miles over the next 9 weeks. Just think how many cheeseburgers are in my future!