Sunday, February 3, 2013

Long Runs are Fun Runs

I have so many blogs posts written in my head. I think some pretty profound(ish) things while I am running. I write entire posts in my head. But when it comes time to sit down and write....nothing.

Such is life.

Training for the Tobacco Road half marathon is going well, albeit not according to the training plan. If I have learned anything from being a full time working mom of 2 small children, it is that I have to adapt to my present situation.

Over the past few weeks I have dealt with a rash of snow days, a crazy busy work schedule and working around Brent's work schedule. Although this past week saw it's fair share of missed workouts, overall I am please with how well I am progressing.

Today I finished up one of my strongest training runs (like, ever) - a 10 miler on the American Tobacco Trail. It's been a full 6 hours since I finished this run and I am still all sorts of giddy just thinking about it.


The first 5 miles were just about as perfect as I could have asked for. I ran by feel and avoided looking at my Garmin as much as possible. I wanted to run at a comfortable pace. I didn't want the numbers to freak me out if they were higher than normal and I didn't want to beat myself up if they weren't where I wanted them to be. So for 5 miles I just ran. My body felt great and my head was in a great place. I didn't stop and I never paused my watch for a break. This is huge for me. And when I look at the splits and find that my "comfortable" pace is getting a bit faster, I am psyched.

At mile 5 I turned around and headed back. I walked while I took in a Gu but had trouble starting back up again. I ended up taking 2 walk breaks during this mile. By my 7th mile I decided to run a mile and walk 0.1. But when my Garmin chirped I didn't feel like stopping and just kept going. Mile 8 was the fastest (and funnest) mile of the run. I felt strong and my head was in a good place. I paid for it in mile 9 but was able to finish with a strong mile 10.

To see 8 of my 10 miles hovering between 10:39 - 11:09 is so incredibly satisfying for me. I can definitely feel myself getting stronger and it is fun to see my progress in number form.

3 comments:

  1. Woo-hoo! Amazing run with great times, Rose!

    And I can totally relate to writing multiple blog posts in my head that never come to fruition.

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