Beginning of Week 7

Sunday December 15:
I had a day of rest for stretching. I had an incredible dream Saturday night and on Sunday I actually woke up painfully sore...

Saturday night's marathon dream:
I had a crazy dream about me running and cycling a marathon. So I guess that would make it a dualathon since I was cycling and running.

It was an incredible dream! I have never dreamt about running a marathon and since I have been so focused for training and improvement before my first 5k along the way it finally appeared in my dreams! It was awesome. I had such wonderful feelings while running the marathon in my dream.

I kept my pace nice and steady though, there were others passing me at a faster paces, I just focused on myself and kept running my pace. Then later in the race I passed them back because they had lost a lot of energy from the beginning. The dream started with everyone cycling to a check point then rounding back to begin the run for finishing the dualathon. I'm not sure what position or times I had in my dream but I do remember I was very proud of myself and I felt I did a great job.

The interesting thing is that I woke up so very sore. I went out for some errands Sunday morning and my knees were aching as if I really did run the marathon.

This just gives me great motivation to continue my jogs at my fast pace. I will now begin with running by getting myself into the zone and muffle everything out while I focus on my times. My own dream has given me insirpation to keep up my hard work and dedication. I also now know that I will be finishing with a good time and have even more confidence in myself! Because I know for sure I will finish!!

Monday December 16:
Although I did pretty good on my times for mondays run of 2 miles, during the run I felt very exhausted! I was tired and felt as if I was going so sslloowww. 
After looking at my times I see I didn't do as bad as I felt I had, so that was good. But this jog was ultimately one of the hardest for me for some reason.

Tuesday December 17:
I feel GREAT today! I did my static stretches and through in a couple dynamic warm ups before starting my run. I felt unstoppable! I jogged almost the entire mile without having to walk for very long! Then I turned back and kept jogging! I felt great and FULL of massive energy!!! Unfortunately, on my way back I had a shooting pain in my upper right shoulder muscles and every time my feet hit the ground when running the pain would flair up. I had to speed walk while I tried to massage the muscle down and subside the pain. My guess is that I slept wacky last night because I did not sleep well at all last night and desperately need a new beddy by. So, I pushed through it and kept up my nice steady jogging pace and tried to walk even less since I had to massage the muscle down for a bit. 
I would highly recommend trainees to sign up for a massage at least twice a month. When I could afford it, this was amazing and helped my back muscles a LOT! I wish I was still able to afford such expense, but unfortunately I can not. So instead I use my home remedies to help my back pain. Massages defiantly help you improve running as this was my experience about 2 years ago. 

Head over to my time records and progress tab to check out my times for week 7!

Spread the running joy and keep up the dedication and hard work!
It will pay eventually!
~Maddie J.