When Neighbors attack during Your Cutback Week

You know the phrase, "It's a good thing that this week was a cutback week because..."?

Well this past week was one of those weeks for me.

It was epically failtastic in how it managed to stifle the desire in me to do just about anything productive. Awesome in terms of its ability to exhaust and frustrate, and leave me in a pile of tears and smelly running clothes.

If you look back to last week's post, you will find one in which I tell the story of my crazy neighbor who has been harassing/stalking/annoying me to no end of late. Basically, since that night, I hadn't slept more than about an hour at time. Every noise I heard, every sound of a door to a unit or the building opening, woke me up and set my heart beating so fast that sleep was out of the question.

This has had a cumulative effect on my running. So much so that practically every run this week felt like torture. Monday's run with Mica was fun. I felt surprisingly good considering the nifty-neat storm-filled long run last Sunday. I was looking forward to a cutback week in which I did not cutback too much! That always seems to be a the challenge. Well I should have known that it wouldn't go the way I planned...

In the wee hours of the morning, Crazy Neighbor commenced with the door knocking. I dutifully ignored, but had a hard time going back to sleep for the 2 remaining hours until my alarm went off. The next morning I picked up Mica and we went to the gym for some crossing training.

It all went downhill from there. I will spare you the entire account, as it is long and frankly, I'm sick of talking about it (because I can't seem to do so without shaking uncontrollably). Between Crazy Neighbor trying to break into my apartment, calling the cops three times and reporting that I was being raped, and me sobbing in front of more than one of Champaign's finest, Wednesday's speedwork didn't happen. I hadn't slept at all and we had meetings and class all day long. My friends have been kind enough to chaperone me home to make sure that I actually made it into my apartment. Wednesday night I managed to sleep for a good, solid 4 hours before I woke up in a panic because I thought I heard a knock. Thursday night was more of the same.

Crazy Neighbor was arrested on Wednesday morning for filing a false police report and disturbing the peace. His name is off the mailbox, so I think that means he's gone, but I'm going to check with the landlord on Tuesday when I pay my rent.

I tried to run on Thursday, and it felt like I was dragging dead weight for six miles. My pace couldn't seem to operate at marathon pace. Friday included no running, as I agreed with Mica that to run when you are already feeling overtired and crappy would be to do more damage than good.

Saturday's run was in Naperville and was supposed to be anywhere from 8 to 10 miles. I wanted to do 10 to make up in some way for missing two runs this week. However, due to the packed snow and the still lingering exhaustion, I only made it 8 miles. Today was supposed to be 8 miles as well, but I'm still in Chicago and need to get some work done/go to church before I head back to Champaign. I don't think I'll have time for an 8 miler, but maybe I'll go for four or five when I return, just to see how I feel.

So yeah, it was a bad week, but conveniently located during a cutback week in training. Honestly, I've never felt so scared in my life. I'm very thankful to my friends for either driving me home or walking me home to make sure I was safe. The hard part was how these events affected my fitness so much. I was physically unable to do what I normally do. I couldn't get out the door in time because I was busy watching out of my window or listening inside for the noises of doors closing.

This week holds a 14 miler in store for me on Sunday. I have hopes that this week will be much better. We are only three weeks away from Spring break, which will pose another challenge to my training, but more on that later.

I'm going to take a nap.