Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Three running tales on a Tuesday

1. I'm not going to lie. There's a little part of me that feels like I failed on Saturday. That 15 mile run that was on the schedule? Technically it didn't get done. Although I did manage to run 11.6 miles. Initially I had plans to drive out to the park where my Fleet Feet group had been meeting. But then I didn't get to bed until late. Which meant I didn't get up early enough and soon it was noon and I still hadn't gone. I was dragging my feet. Part of it was I scared to run the long miles alone. But I put my shoes on and headed out.

The worst part about waiting so long was that the wind had picked up. So the first 4-5 miles were straight into a steady 20 mile per hour wind. Tough. I got the wind at my back for some, but by then I was at the point in the run where I was making a lot of turns, so it seemed like I could never escape the wind. By the time I made the last turn and was headed home, I was beat from battling the wind for what seemed like almost the entire 11.6 miles. So I stopped. I guess I could have tacked on the extra 3.4 miles (or even headed downstairs to my parents' basement and their treadmill), but my legs were trashed. So the plan called for 15, I finished 11.6. A part of me feels like a bit of a failure. But then there's a part of me that's saying, hey at least I got 11.6 miles done.

2. Monday called for a short 3 mile recovery-type run. To sum it up: It was hard. The hardest 3-miles I've run in forever. The only thing that kept me going was that I was running with my friend Jess.

3. Since Mother Nature decided to dump 2 inches of rain on Oshkosh today I headed indoors to the treadmill. And let me tell you, after Monday's run, I was not looking forward to attempting 7 miles on the dreadmill. Once I started running I was having this argument with myself about the reasons why I could/should cut the mileage down. Ultimately I stayed strong and busted out the 7 miles. In order to make it a bit more entertaining, I ran miles 2, 4 and 6 at a faster pace and took the other miles slightly slower. It got done.

Bonus: Is it bad that I'm looking forward to the Green Bay half marathon, not only for the race itself and another chance to set a new PR, but also because it means I'll be able to have a little bit of a break? For the chance to not feel guilty about not running?

1 comment:

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) said...

hey: I personally think you can cut yourself a little slack. This winter and "spring" (HA) has been just brutal for any of us in MN or WI that is training for any type of outdoor event. I'm sick of rain, snow and wind. I'm tired of grey and cold. It has been really hard to get psyched up for any thing, but yet, here we are plugging along as best as we can. The weather (and our motivation) has GOT to improve....so try to hang in there.