Ugh, I hate it when you’ve been away from something long enough for the layout or interface of it to have changed.  This is what happened with me and wordpress.  It was sort of jarring to log in today and see that *everything* was different from how I remember it being.  I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been away for a while.  I didn’t even really realize how long it had been.  I kept thinking, “Oh, I should blog about…” and then I didn’t, and then that happened over and over again.

But that’s unimportant, I guess, because here I am.

I really enjoyed everyone’s comments about my rookie training plan.  I’ve been following the plan but my long runs have been longer than those on the plan.  I’m finishing week 4 this week (of 16) and up until this week, things had been going really well.  My long runs felt great, my other runs during the week felt great (I mean, every now and then they wouldn’t be great, but if you were to sit down and average it all out, things would be skewed toward very good).  But Monday (a cross-training day) I felt too tired to cross-train.  Then, instead of running on Tuesday, I took another rest day because I was exhausted.  Wednesday I ran, and Thursday I ran, but Friday I was exhausted again.  Saturday I wanted to get up and run in the morning, but I didn’t.  Later in the day, I was exhausted.  And today I skipped my long run because…(wait for it) I was exhausted.  Now, when I say exhausted, I mean I feel like someone has taken some sort of siphon or needle to my body and just drawn out all the energy.  My muscles feel weak, my thoughts are slow, my body is lethargic, and I don’t want to do anything other than lie down.  Most of the time, when I feel this way, I’m unable to nap.  Caffeine doesn’t help for very long, eating doesn’t help, and it seems like no amount of sleep is enough.

I’ve been pretty low energy for a while now, but it’s starting to interfere with things now.  The good news is that I finally started taking anti-depressants, so some of the edge has been taken off my depressive symptoms.  But I’m thinking the dosage may need adjusting.

Additionally, I think I could probably be eating a bit better.  I haven’t had much of an appetite lately, and the food I’ve been eating has been somewhat lacking in fruits and vegetables.  So!  Today I was looking into Brendan Brazier’s Thrive plan because I thought it would be interesting to read about someone who trains heavily and who also happens to be vegan, and I ended up signing up for the Thrive in 30 program.  I figure it’s free advice and can’t hurt.  Brazier is a professional triathlete advocates plant-based whole foods, which I sort of strive to incorporate into my diet anyway.

In the introductory message of the Thrive in 30 program, Brazier outlines five things that you should attempt to do as you work toward tweaking your diet, and I thought I would try, over the course of this next week, to follow 3 to 4 out of these five rules each day and see how it helps my energy level (if at all).  I’m hoping that paying more attention to what I’m putting into my body as well as the rest I’ve given myself this past week will help me get back on track with training this week because to be honest, I was really enjoying myself and this week I really missed running   So I’ll keep you all posted.