I've been AWOL ...

But I had a good excuse! I've been on deadline for a book and so I was putting in 18-20 hour days working to get it done in time. My poor husband had to deal with no cooking, no cleaning, and barely a "hello" when he came home from work! He also flew to China in the middle of all that (probably a blessing in disguise since he didn't have to watch me go into meltdown over my computer) so I ended up pulling a few all nighters to get the book done in time. And I turned it in! Yay!

Now I'm catching up on all the other work I neglected while I was on deadline.

While I was on deadline, I have to admit I was terrible in terms of eating and exercise. Eating, however, was not as bad as I have been for previous deadlines. While it was carb heavy, I also made sure I ate a lot of protein, too. Exercise, however, really fell by the wayside. Instead of running 3 x a week, I only ran once a week, especially b/c the last week I was on deadline I was either sleeping only 4-6 hours a night or pulling a couple all nighters.

I'm doing the ecoaching thing with Jeff Galloway and he said that in future, I should try to get out for 5-10 minutes every other day rather than not running.

I can see the wisdom of that. I just don't know if I'd have felt I could break off my writing momentum in order to go outside for 15 minutes. Since I started writing 4-5 books a year, I've discovered that my writing is such a weird creative thing that is more momentum driven than when I was in biology work, where I could stop at any time and pick up again a few minutes later. If I stop at a crucial point in my writing, when I sit down at the computer again, it takes me 15-20 minutes to get back into my writing flow. It's very frustrating, which is why I don't stop to eat proper meals--I usually snack every hour instead so I don't interrupt my momentum. (On a positive note, my snacking is typically small portions or lots of fresh raw veggies like carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers.)

Okay, okay, enough excuses. I didn't exercise enough while I was on deadline, which made Jeff scale back my pace and run/walk ratio for my long runs. But then (!!!) I woke up with a cold last week Friday, which is when I was supposed to do my 26 mile long run. I went running anyway but by mile 8 I was done, I was just too sick. I felt better on Monday and ran 8 miles, felt pretty good, but then (!!!) I slipped in the shower Mon night and hyperextended my right knee, which is the knee I've had two ACL surgeries on. It's a bit swollen. I've been icing and elevating it since Mon night and doing some light exercise on the exercise bike, which seems to decrease the swelling a bit. But it also means I haven't run since Monday. I'm feeling better today although the knee still hurts a little when I straighten my leg.

I'm hoping if I feel better on Friday I will still be able to do my 26 miler. I just emailed Jeff to ask him if I can do that. My marathon is in 3.5 weeks, on Dec 12th, so maybe???

My running has just been terribly frustrating for me this week, esp because I had hoped to get back on track right after I finished my deadline!