Half-Marathon Training: Week of December 14th

6 Weeks to Go

I can't believe I only have 6 weeks to go before the half-marathon. I'm seriously considering not running it. One, I don't think I'll be ready to run sub-3. Two, my ankles are whack! They seem to hurt all the time. 

I don't care about the sub-3 too much as the end of the race is on the greenway and a little traveled road so if support closes up, no big deal. I also don't believe I'd miss it by very much if at all. But the ankles. OMG, I just feel like they are trashed. 

Sunday, Dec. 14th I did not run. It was below freezing and the temperature continued to drop all day long. It was actually warmer at 28 degrees the morning than at night when it was 16 with a "feels like" of 2 degrees. That's cold! 

Monday and Tuesday I didn't run. I had ZERO motivation. I thought about it. I wanted to at some point during the day, but I just could NOT get myself up, dressed and out the door. I don't know if I'm just caught in a holiday funk, a work funk, a running funk or what. It's bad. 

On Wednesday & Thursday, I didn't run or hike, but I did do some push ups and held a low squat for 30 seconds the first day and 50 seconds the next day. 

On Friday, I held the squat for a minute and did arm curls with dumbbells and some front and side raises after. 

Saturday I didn't do anything, but on Sunday I held a deep squat for one minute and then I did 2 sets of 25 reps on a bench press type exercise with 25lb dumbbells. I didn't have a bench so I used a foot stool of sorts. I followed that up with 2 sets 10 deadlifts with 25lb dumbbells.

On the bright side, I did lose 1.4lbs this week. So that was interesting.

What to Do at This Point?

My ankles have good days and bad days. Because I haven't been running, I'm not sure what my long run even is at this point. Not to mention that I haven't been running, so I haven't been wearing my barefoot style shoes. Can I jump into a long run of 5 or 6 miles (assuming I can still go that far) in barefoot shoes without injury? As a coach, I'd advise against it. In fact, as a coach, I'd probably tell any client to just drop out of the race, I'm not ready, I show nothing / demonstrate nothing that would indicate anything is going to change at this point. But my ego! My ego is insisting I have time. I just need to figure out what's happening that I have ZERO motivation.