Once more, this time with feeling!

It’s been a productive, albeit busy, week. Last weeks long run, a lackluster eight, left me a little bit in a funk. Don’t get me wrong, I ran the whole eight, the weather was nice, it was a good experience. But it was S-L-O-W. The good news was that my recovery was uneventful, a huge relief.

It  snowed, again, on Tuesday. I am so over the snow and cold, this is the winter that just won’t quit. The three inches were in the forecast, but I was hoping they were wrong. For once, that was not the case. I was very busy at work and skipped my run at lunch with a plan to make it up after work when it warmed up or the next day. After work turned later and later and ended up with a family trip to science night at the kid’s school. Wednesday morning included snow still on the ground, but a steady warming all day. I got a solid three, closer to four, at lunch. Garry the Garmin and I are still at the beginning of our relationship and we missed out on a good five minutes of tracking. I tried a different route, which slowed me down a bit because I kept getting confused. It was flatter than my usual route, but had 4 major road crossings and at noontime they are busy. I’ll likely add part of that to a longer run day, but not during a time crunched lunch. I took the time to wave good bye to the melting snow, as I hope it’s seven months or so until I see it again.

See you later snow!!

Thursday, I opted for after work as my best friend and I are taking our boys to a glow run in a few weeks and I wanted to get a few runs in with the boy before we attempt a 5K together. We did a walk/run session with varying paces on the run portions, ending with a race back to the house for the last bowl of ice cream. He handled 1.4 miles well, especially considering dinner arrived as we headed out.  I headed back out once he finished his victory lap around the driveway to bring in another 3 for the week. I felt strong and felt my stride was much more steady and less labored.

There was debate over when and what my long run was going to look like. I’m in semi-freak out mode as I’m so far from my training plans and the sad state of my last long run had me nervous. Juggling work schedules and family plans for the holiday made things extra tricky. Friday night insomnia didn’t help the matter. Opportunity knocked Saturday morning, I set out on a Gump style run. I went running, with no particular plan, other than to return to home in time for the man to leave for work. I downed a banana and granola bar, took my small hand held water bottle and Garry.

I consciously started out slow, and hit the hilly path that starts very close to home. Once that always-trying first mile was done I felt pretty good. I tried to push myself, but not too hard, I’m just starting to get the hang of running with Garry and his constant feed of information. I have a basic goal for this half, and my overall goal for the day was to just do my run that pace or under, knowing I would  likely not get to the ten previously written into my training plan. For the past 16 months or so runkeeper would update me every 5 minutes,  my current and average pace so I’m used to feedback, but my phone is in a belt and not easily accessible for additional info. I had noticed even on Tuesday I was trying to slow down and I just kept finding myself speeding up because I compete against myself constantly.

I took a more traffic laden route back towards home hoping the public nature of running on the sidewalk of the busy road would shame me to keep a decent pace. After that, I crossed into part of the half course for a bit over a mile, and then added on my usual 5k neighborhood route, but in reverse. I ran out of water at about seven miles, and I was right at the end of my street but I forged ahead. Around that time I finally made a decision to go for quality over quantity. I had more in my tank, but stopping for water might really cause chaos at home, I could do one more mile without water and work on maintaining my pace to have a successful eight vs. a limping home 10. I was able to finish strong, and felt like I could have gone a bit further. I stretched a bit after, but overall felt good. I’m getting the hydration/ during run eating as well as recovery eating hang of it again I think.

Today was family time, and I was for the first time in years comfortable in my own skin. I felt good to have a nice strong run done, at race pace, under my belt. My clothes fit well and I could basically chose from anything in my closet to wear, which has been a long time coming. I’m quite sure that the thoughts I was able to work through, from the mundane to the deep, on my second eight mile long run in 2 weeks, helped me to get the job done, and with feeling this time. It certainly helped my overall psyche.

Easter was everywhere this week, I think the eagle even laid an egg!!