I woke up very tired this morning, as if thats anything new in my world! On my running schedule for this morning I had 4 miles with 3×800 @ 9:55 pace. I did this workout last week and it was hard, but totally worth it. I started with a VERY slow mile warm up (12 min pace) to get my body to wake up. Honestly, it took well into the second mile before my body actually woke up. Sometimes, you just need to push through the exhaustion, and today was a day it paid off. I started my 3×800 at 6.1mph and after the first one I knew I could do more than the prescribed workout. Generally, I’m not a proponent of deviating too far from workouts, just because I think its a good way to push yourself too hard and get hurt. However, I knew my body to handle it today. I ended up doing 4×800 with the last two at 6.2 mph (400 jogs in between) and then 2×400 at 6.4mph with 400 jogs. All together I finished 5 miles in about 52 minutes.
Some days my body just falls into a nice rhythm and the run is smooth and easy. Today was not one of those days. I know I just said that I did an extra mile because I knew I could handle it- but not because the run was flowing smoothly- but because something in my brain told me to go harder. Occasionally I will have a run where nothing works and I have keep repeating mantras to myself to get my mind off the pain. Today, I did something a little different. Rather than the usual “you can do this”, “only 1 more mile” I started thinking about how far I have come. In October, I could barely run 3 miles and running at 6.2mph on the treadmill was an all out sprint. I couldn’t hold a 10 minute pace for more than a few minutes (2, I think) and I was so disheartened. Then, I ran a 5k, started to incorporate speed work and suddenly (ok, more like over the course of months) I could easily hold a 10 min pace and I was doing sprints at 6.6-6.7mph. In the running world, these stats are still outrageously slow, but compared to where I started, I’m thrilled! All of these thoughts and numbers were running through my head during that last 400 pace at 6.2 and it really pushed me through. Yes, it hurt and I really wanted to stop, but I kept reminding myself “think of how far you’ve come” and “think of how proud you are to even be running this fast for 30 seconds”. Well, that 400 was over faster than the rest and I even powered through another mile after that. Sometimes, you just need tricks to keep going- and the pay off is almost always worth it.
Its a rainy/snowy/nasty day here, but I’m counting down the hours until I get on a train to Philly to see my best best friend in the whole world for the weekend. We are celebrating her recent birthday and awesome achievement of becoming a certified yoga instructor. I couldn’t be more proud of her!
lifeinalabcoat 