10/30: 6 Miles, TM. 53:25 (8:53 pace)
10/31: 3 Miles. TM 27:39/ (9:11 pace)
11/1: Rest (a lot of candy and menchies. WHOOPS)
11/2: 10 Miles. Outside. Windy as shit. 1:35. (9:31 pace)
11/3:
***
Extra tired this week. PMS week, maybe? Let it be known that everyone has been forewarned.
This warning/announcement may be of more use if more than 2 people read this blog. But whatever, I put it out there people. Be careful....
I like to try and get the highest weekday mileage run out of the way, which works well since the plan I'm using happens to have the longest runs be on Tuesdays. However, since I had Wednesday off for O's field trip, I figure I"d sleep in a little but still have time to run 6 before the kids woke up. Tuesday's run was run of the mill, 5 miles. Wednesday I slept in until 5:30 and ironically had a tougher times getting my legs to listen to me. I just remember wanting to stop. A lot. I didn't though and ended up running a faster pace than the previous day's 5 miles. Like I said, I make no sense. My pacing skills are
Thursday, however? I almost skipped. I think I must have gotten in and out of bed about 4 times in the span of 20 minutes but eventually I rolled my ass out of bed with about 30 minutes to spare. I figured I could at least squeeze out 3 lame miles. Surely I could do that, right? However, I had a momentary lapse in judgement and realized about .4 miles into the run that the first 3 miles of any run kind of blows. Managed to stumble my way through, with a slower pace than the previous two days runs. Pace and consistency fail. Shocker to no one.
Friday's rest was filled with way too much sugar. Such shame. And yet, such deliciousness.
***
Saturday's run: 10 Miles in Hurricane Bonney Lake. GOOD LORD.
Split
|
Time
|
Distance
|
Avg Pace
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | 1:35:29.0 | 10.00 | 9:31 |
| 1 | 9:29.7 | 1.00 | 9:30 |
| 2 | 9:27.9 | 1.00 | 9:28 |
| 3 | 9:25.3 | 1.00 | 9:25 |
| 4 | 9:35.5 | 1.00 | 9:36 |
| 5 | 9:14.8 | 1.00 | 9:15 |
| 6 | 9:36.4 | 1.00 | 9:36 |
| 7 | 9:49.0 | 1.00 | 9:49 |
| 8 | 9:41.5 | 1.00 | 9:42 |
| 9 | 9:36.5 | 1.00 | 9:36 |
| 10 | 9:32.0 | 1.00 | 9:32 |
Saturday's run. It was.. HARD. It has been a while since I've struggled so much during a long run. I was able to wrangle J into joining me in the blustery outdoors, with the black clouds floating ominously close to our neighborhood. It felt like every direction we turned was like running into a wind tunnel. My hat even blew off half a mile into our run. I had to go chase it because it kept blowing away from me! Never once in our 10 miles did I feel like I hit a groove, even after a hit of Chocolate Outrage GU at mile 5. I didn't take my water with me, and didn't necessarily miss it but I am sure that I could have used a little hydration. I had planned for us to run by the water fountain about halfway through but we ended up going in a different direction The toughest part of the run was coming back up a long, gradual hill at mile 7. My legs felt heavy, and J even mentioned that I seemed to be dragging my feet a bit.
After my hat blew off, I was very tempted to run home and finish the rest of the 9 miles on the treadmill. I never mentioned this plan to J, and so we trekked on through the neighborhood, with his achy knee and my heavy legs. I remember struggling to stay focused, to not hate every second and to just. keep. going.
Struggle, struggle, struggle.
At one point, J turned to me and said, "you should try smiling. I hear it helps release dopamine and makes you feel good" and my curt response was "shut.... it. Just. run...". We actually did have a good laugh right about then but the laughter slowly faded to silent, inward tears at the thought of four more miles in the raging wind. The wind just. never. stopped. Towards the end of the run, at mile 8-ish, I even had to ask J to slow down and wait for me. As most people know, I would never normally do that. In fact, I have no problem leaving people behind if I have to. I'd make a great soldier, I know.
We both didn't have much left at the end and the last hill towards home was rough. J had to stop for a few seconds because his knee was aching but I wasn't much better. I could have sworn I was running up the hill but nothing seemed to be moving. I looked down at my watch and my pace had slowed to 12 min/mile at that point. With arms pumping like a flailing maniac, I managed to reach the top with .5 miles to go. J and I ran slow circles around our neighborhood until we reached the 10 mile mark. I was relieved to finally hear the BEEP of the mile marker and instantly stopped my Garmin and came to a stand still right in front of our house.
10 rough miles. Windy. Fatigued. DONE.
Saturday's run was a much needed reminder of why I do what I do. If every run and every workout were easy, would I push myself as much as I do to improve and keep going? Sometimes my run is going to be mentally and/or physically tough, and I will want to give up. In the past, I guarantee that I would have. I mean, stopping is easier. It hurts less. Giving up has always been the easy choice for me.
Until now.
Trying. Pushing. Hurting. Struggling. Conquering - that is what helps us get better, right?
***
I will leave you with one of my favorite commercials:
*Forcing myself to do at least 1 day/session of XT a week. Need to build strength in other ways if I want to get stronger and faster. And less flabby...
Oh and I had Menchies on Wednesday too! Shhhh....
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