And then I ran
Yesterday I was lacking motivation. Heck, I’ll admit it, I was down on myself. By five in the afternoon I felt as if I hadn’t accomplished much and I hadn’t worked out in days (okay, it was only three but that is a lot for me). I desperately needed to do something. P90X just wasn’t going to cut it. So I sat in my chair (since I sold the couch) and I whined a bit to Ron about my dilemma.
It wasn’t looking so good for a moment. And then I realized it was the 4th Sunday of the month, time for #runchat. I didn’t really have anything to contribute, I hadn’t run in days (I don’t count speed training). So I decided what I needed to do. I threw on my running shorts so I had no excuses.
I’ll admit, I sat around for an hour or two waiting until the sun went down and the temperature was more agreeable. I set a time, I’d leave my apartment no later than 7pm for this jaunt. And when 6:54pm rolled around, I scurried off to my room to finish dressing and headed out the door.
At first my run was like most others, the first quarter mile was 15 seconds faster than my typical pace. I feared I’d gone out of the box a bit fast (as usual), but I kept going. Looking down at my watch as I hit 1/2 a mile I noticed something odd, my pace had dropped by another thirty seconds. Hm, okay, I’ll just roll with it. A quarter of a mile later (my laps are set to 1/4 mile) I had dropped another few seconds. I seriously had no idea what was going on. I was going fast (for me).
So I kept up the pace. At one point I thought I had slowed down, but Garmy informed me I had in fact sped up a touch. By the time I rounded my complex I had completed 2.5 miles at a pace one minute faster than my average. I felt like a champ. Admittedly I couldn’t run up my stairs as triumphantly as Rocky, though I felt just as proud.
It wasn’t the distance I had initially hoped for, but I was quite happy with what I accomplished. Apparently all of my speed training has helped me speed it up a notch! I’m hoping to keep up this momentum. Not necessarily run that quickly every time, but to improve my pace and focus on my goals (marathon in December, eep!).
A major thanks to everyone who told me to quit my bitching go out and do it.
When was the last time you felt triumphant?
Posted on June 27, 2011, in Running and tagged Running, Speed Training. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
The Running Jewess 
Nice run! It’s nice when a run just feels good, despite going harder :)
Agreed, it is fantastic when a run is ten times better than expected! Hope training week 4 is going well for you. :)
Hooray for speed training! I really need to work that in more…
I’m very fortunate to have the greatest speed group in the world. Yes I’m the last runner (every time), but it is great to have them with me. I suggest going out there and having fun with it, apparently it helps!
I felt triumphant the other day when I talked myself out of talking myself out of working out. ;p The last time I felt triumphant with regard to running was back in college when I ran in the Motorola Marathon….relay. Gotcha. I can’t run 26.2 miles!!! but I did run a 10K…and I finished in an hour. I would love to get back to that pace when running. I would love to get back to running period. We’ll see.
Great job on your run!! Don’t you love it when you do so much better than you realize?
You are totally awesome for letting go of excuses and working out. I hope I can muster up the same strength tonight…
A one hour 10k? That is impressive. What is keeping you from running these days?
That’s awesome you had such a great run! I love days like this, you feel a high from your workout for hours afterward :)
I’m not a natural runner. I only ran then because I had to as a workout for my crew team. It was never pleasurable for me…I never got that runner’s high I always hear about. So when I wasn’t on the rowing team I stopped running. Nowadays I just want to try it out and see if I can do it again and maybe learn to like it. I’m still trying to talk myself into it though. :D
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