If The Running Shoe Fits....

I did it again!

It was a struggle this morning, but I made it out to run.

Source

(So maybe I didn't run 22 miles, but this is still about the same train of thought I had going on- except I focused more on wanting banana peanut butter frozen greek yogurt tonight)

Today was another fantastic run for me. 2 miles in 28:06. Not too shabby.

I'm beginning to see that my short runs are getting a little faster, as I'm able to maintain around a 14:00-14:30min/mile pace more often than not. I'm hoping this means my endurance for longer runs will get better also. I will find out on Sunday when I do my 4 mile run. Wish me luck!

Alas, there were no horn honks or random strangers cheering me on this time out, but it's okay. I still feel it was a very good run. I always feel so accomplished after I run- love it!

Oh! I have a fun story for you and want to know y'alls thoughts on this-

 I was talking with one of my cast mates last night and he asked if I would ever run a full marathon. I chuckled and said, "Most likely not." When he questioned why, I replied, "I have difficulty with 13.1, I can't even begin to imagine doing 26.2." He gave me a small smile, mulling over my answer, before responding with, "Yea, but I bet you thought you could never do 13.1 either, and here you are planning to do at least 2 other half marathons." I was silent. I, honestly, had never thought about that. 26.2 miles just seems like such an intimidating number to me. But, then again, when I started training for my first 5k, so did 13.1miles. I swore up and down I would never run a half marathon- and now, not only have I already done 1, I'm planning to do 2 others. The more I thought about it, the more the idea of running a full marathon intrigued me. I think I may do it (which if anyone knows me, you know this is a HUGE thing for me to say). If I do decide to train and run a full marathon, it will not be this year as I'm already commited to my Hartford half training again, but I may do it next year. Perhaps in February 2013 I will run the Princess Half and then start training for the ING Full Marathon in October 2013.

I'm not fully committed to the idea yet, but it is something I'm keeping in the back of my mind.



Kind of Bummed

Ick, Ick, Ick, Ick.

What a disappointing run I had today!

 

That's about what I looked like after my run.

I was exhausted today but I knew I needed to do my long run for the week. My goal was 5 miles. I mapped out a course to my grandmother's house again and decided to go at it. Just before I was about to head out, my brother's girlfriend decided she wanted to come with me. Awesome! She used to do cross country running when she was in high school, but hadn't really been keeping up with it lately. I told her the plan and we started off. After the first 1.25 miles, I decided I wanted to take a different route (mainly because I didn't feel up to tackling the ginormous hill at mile 2). We took a few side streets and ran through the center of town, past the police station and then up a few smaller hills to my grandma's house.

Sadly, with my change of route, I lost a mile and only ended up doing 4.08 miles. Bwah bwah!
To make it even worse, it took me 68 minutes to run the 4 miles. Double Bwah Bwah. :(

I know that 4-5 miles is a long run for me right now, and that even though my short runs have gotten faster, my long runs are still going to take some time before I start to drop significant time. I know this, really I do, but I'm impatient. And I also accept that I was rather tired, part of why I changed my route in the first place, so of course my time was going to be slower. I understand that everyone has up days and down days, and that, apparently, today was a "bottom-of-the-friggin-pit" kind of day for me. Argh. I want to go faster NOW!

On the up side, I am proud that my endurance is getting much better! I can run longer periods of time before I have to stop, so out of the 4 miles today, I ran about 3 miles total. That makes me a little happy at least (it's the silver lining of my rainy running cloud I suppose ). 

EDIT:  I also just officially registered for my 2nd 5k in May. Check out my dailymile widget to the right (and feel free to add me).

Questions of the Day:

1. What was your most disappointing run and what did you do to overcome/fix it?
2. Have you ever had to alter a running route while running? If so, why?