Trying to uncrank myself.

A lot of work craziness, a lot of crankiness, and a lot of running have been the rule for the last half of this week.

This was me this week.  Hell, this has been me since September.

The running, however, helped deal with most of the crankiness, so there was a net craziness gain of zero this week.  I like it when it all balances out, don't you?

Wednesday was an easy run on the treadmill, and when I say easy, I mean easy.  Easy like a Sunday morning easy.  However, I still like to start slow and kick it up a little towards the end, just to get used to running faster at the end of my runs.

It's the "tempo run" I did on Thursday that I am the most disappointed with this week.  While it was 8 miles of much needed stress relief (meaning 8 miles of not thinking about work and focusing on the run), it was a tempo run that I once again ran too slowly because of my fear of doing these types of runs on the treadmill.  And now for the splits:

Yeah, it pretty much bit the big one.  A 9:30 pace thereabouts; pretty sad, considering I usually like to run these at my 10K pace when I'm outside, which is anywhere between 8:15 and 8:30.  But the treadmill has mentally shackled me for some reason.  A 9:30 was all I could handle before my brain started to panic, telling me I would never, ever make it all the way to 6 miles oh God that's so long to run fast on the treadmill I'll never ever make it.

The treadmill and I have to come to an understanding, it seems.  I have to stop thinking "I can't" while I'm on there and just remember that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.  I'm there to run, so I need to get it done.

And my brain just needs to shut the hell up while I'm on the treadmill.  Maybe I'll just turn up the TV to drown myself out.

On a brighter note, I got to use my barbell for an entire workout this morning.  Continuing my Cathextravaganza, I did her Power Hour workout, which is a high-rep weight training workout that will give you a little workout with your barbell.  I like this workout because:

a) I get to use a barbell in almost every exercise
b) Cathe tells you what weight she has on her barbell every single time
c) It makes my biceps beg for mercy
d) Mmmmm deadlifts and dead rows (I love back work)
e) The late '90s set cracks my shit up
f) I get to use a barbell in almost every exercise

I thought it was a little light on the tricep work at the end, but maybe because in every other workout I own by Cathe it seems like she works the triceps until you can feel them trying to flee from your body.  Although I can tell you that I scared the crap out of my husband when he came down the stairs this morning and saw me doing tricep extensions while laying down on my step--the hubbs thought I was going to drop the thing on my forehead and tried to "save" me by grabbing the bar.  I can tell you that's not a safe thing to do when your wife has been cranked up on crankiness all week and just wants to do some tricep extensions with 35 pounds on her barbell without being bothered.

Speaking of bothered, tomorrow I see I have an 18-mile pace run on the training schedule, where I have to negative split my run and end up at my marathon goal pace.  It is also slated to be 12 degrees with 12 mph winds at the time I want to go out and do this run.  Looks like tomorrow I'll be blogging about that run while wiping the icicles from my eyelashes.

I can't wait until spring gets here.

Cranky guy photo credit: massdistraction via photopin cc