Tired can be just an illusion

I like the above quote, especially the part that says, "Do the thing you think you cannot do." This morning I felt tired and didn't want to go for a run. I really didn't think my body was up to it, but the weather forecast this morning was calling for a good chance of rain this evening and into tomorrow morning, so I figured I'd better go ahead and run and not have to deal with the rain.

I even put it off when I got back home. Had some more coffee, sat at the computer, had a snack, drank a tall glass of water, went pee, then finally got suited up to run. Funny, once I was suited up, I suddenly felt much more ready to run. Out the door I went, not sure how it would go. The brisk warm-up walk gave me no clue. I wasn't even sure what I wanted to do today... try to run 3 miles? Do one-mile splits and work on my speed, as I had read recently was supposedly good to do?

I decided, once again, to just run and see what my body wanted to do. Turns out, my body was VERY ready to run today! I felt strong and light on my feet. It felt GREAT. So the decision was made for me -- I would run as fast as I felt comfortable running, for at least a mile. So much for being tired, that was just an illusion. I wound up running the first mile at a 9:30 pace, which is my fastest mile yet! At that point, my body was ready to take it a little easier, so I walked/ran/walked the rest of the 2.2 mile route (which is all I had time for this morning, since I had put it off for as long as I did).

Lesson learned: Don't let a "tired feeling" fool you. Get out there and run, and see what your body really wants to do.

If the rain isn't too bad tomorrow morning, maybe I'll try another run (3 miles at a moderate pace, maybe?), since today was such a short one, then skip Friday and do my long run on Saturday.