Okay so running was definitely not my strong point this week. I don’t know what’s going on. The Man Run 10K is fast approaching so now is not the time for me to be falling off so I’m really just hoping it was a bad week and we can put it behind us come my first run next week.

Now, on Tuesday I was proud of myself because despite skipping a morning run and having a hair appointment that evening, I didn’t let it prevent me from getting some miles in. I took off Tuesday night around 8:30 for 2 quick miles – and they were definitely quick. Quick-er, at least. I posted recently about how I felt I was damned to my lame 10K pace for all eternity but for my 2 miles on Tuesday my average pace was closer to 10 minutes than it’s been in a few weeks so that made me feel good. I did not feel good, though, in the tummy area because while I did get my butt out the door for a run it was only after I had initially decided to not run and eat dinner instead. So while I got 2 miles in around 20 minutes or so, I carried along four slices of pizza in my tummy and I wasn’t happy about that decision. My pace was alright, though, so maybe the key is to be hella uncomfortable? I think I’ll stick to pizza after running from now on.

Thursday’s run was even worse, somehow. It was pitiful. 3.01 miles in 37 minutes. That’s way slow. As I approached mile 2 I got a small side stitch. I figured I’d tough it out but it got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. Before 2.25 miles I was in a crippling amount of pain. I didn’t walk the rest of the way but I walked at least half of it. It was awful. I slowed my pace, changed my breathing, had eaten healthily all day, tried to stretch it out – all the things they tell you to do to fix it and nothing worked. Worst side stitch in a year of running. I said dirty words.

Part of me thinks I’ve struggled a bit this week because not only did I trim my beard but I also cut my hair and in the process apparently lost my Viking status…

While I skipped my Monday gym class because my Sunday long run last week wore me out, I did get a Wednesday and Friday class in and attended yet another T-75 class on Saturday – 15 minutes of warm up, 12 three-minute rounds on the heavy bag, 15 minutes of core. I’ve also picked up an Iron Gym so I can do pull ups in the door way and have been utilizing it for pull ups, push ups, tricep dips and crunches throughout the week. All of this has told me that I’m good with taking today off. Yep. Long run = skipped. I want to say I don’t care but I do. I posted on Twitter that running is the most evil, most painful addiction I have. It’s stupid but I just. Can’t. Quit.

I’ve been struggling lately trying to determine how I’m going to handle my training in the weeks following my 10K at the end of the month. I keep getting conflicting information for several different trainers: Some are telling me to cut body fat you need to do more lifting and cut your running back – some say you shouldn’t have any trouble running more and lifting to gain muscle mass – and I’m saying I don’t know if I’m willing to cut my running but at the same time as long as I can still run maybe those longer distances really aren’t necessary. So I think I’ve made a decision: Maybe I won’t cut body fat as much as I’d like, but I think I can lift weights after my 10K and train, 10% at a time, for a half marathon. There – I said it – I’m doing it. Maybe not this year, but it’s going to happen. 13.1. Bring it on.

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Before signing off with my mileage table I’m going to include a few random things from the week. To begin with, here’s a pretty sweet video RunHaven shared on Facebook today of a fun April Fool’s day prank played by the folks at SoulPancake. No lie, I’d love it if this happened on one of my Sunday long runs. Heck, they were probably set up today to do it for me and I never showed up. Oops.

Next, just a couple of photos from an event last night at Northshore Casual Pint for a mid-summer celebration of the Knoxville Ice Bears 2015 SPHL Championship. The President’s Cup trophy was there, a couple of players – good beer, great food provided by Chef Deuce’s Island Grill. Also: my super cute wife was there:

Also, here’s a random photo I found in my email when I emailed these images from this post to myself. Presented without comment:

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And finally, the miles to-date. 6 runs remain!

Time Period	Total Distance
Couch-to-5k (8/14-10/14)	64.59 Miles
Runtastic Runs (10/14-4/15)	115.04 Miles
5k-to-10k (4/15-6/21)	87.52 Miles
Runtastic Runs (6/23-present)	51.04 Miles
Total Miles Ran To-Date: 318.19 Miles
Miles Left Until Stretch Goal, 340 Miles: 21.81
Number of Miles Per Run to Reach Yearly Goal*: 3.63
This is assuming I run three days per week every week until the week of 8/14/2015
2015 Miles	194.97 Miles
Miles Left Until 2015 Goal (350 Miles): 155.03
Race Times
Race	Time
Knoxville Hot to Trot 5k 2014	35:08
Calhoun’s New Year’s Day 5k 2015	No official time
Zen Evo Chocolate Lover’s Valentine’s 5K 2015	33:10
Barley’s St. Patrick’s Day 5k 2015	34:34
Covenant Health 5k 2015	33:39
Pilot Fireball Moonlite Classic 5k	33:05