That's all, folks!

This "Road Runner" is retiring from running for good now. My body has decided for me that running-for-fitness, and I, don't mix well. I will cherish the time I did have to run.

My mission now will be to find suitable alternatives to running that will challenge me in the same way that running did.

I'm not sure what I will do now with this Blog. Change the name and make it a Fitness Blog? A Fitness and Nutrition Blog? Start an entirely new Blog? I'll let you know when I decide. In the meantime, farewell to all my fine-feathered friends, my fellow Road/Beach/Trail/Wherever Runners. Run your hearts out and make me proud as I cheer you on from the sidelines. :-)

Two steps back, one step... forward?

I'm not sure if running the two days in a row was too much for my body or what, but it seems like ever since then, I've had nothing but trouble.

I have done some runs, but nothing like what I was doing before, and am now a whole week behind in my training schedule. Something has happened to my passion for running again, too, and I have even been seriously contemplating quitting running altogether and doing something different. Why? Because my "getting older" body is starting to show signs of not liking this running thing after all. Either that, or this is just a hiccup that I will eventually get over.

My plan is to give it one more week ~ this week ~ before deciding whether or not to switch to a different form of exercise, something that I know I will equally love. This week I will attempt to repeat last week's 3-3-3 and see how I do.

Two new additions to our family; 5 miles in two days

A week ago we brought home two new babies, one male calico kitten and one female calico kitten, named by my daughter, "Morris," and "Rosa." It has been a wonderful fit for our little family. I have to admit to being a little nervous about how my five year old daughter would do with seven week old kittens (who are now nine weeks), but she has surprised me by doing okay. As okay as can be expected with a five year old, that is.

It is a wonderful thing to be greeted by two little cutie pies every morning as they come out from their nighttime sleeping hideout and come scurrying up to me to "hug" my legs, or stand on their hind legs and beg for me to pick them up. They're smart little boogers, too. Rosa has figured out that, refrigerator door open means soft cat food or cat milk, so she jumps up on the refrigerator door and appears to be trying to open it up. Which makes her look pretty smart, until, of course, she lands in her water dish and runs off jerking her paws out to the side.

And there is nothing like a warm, soft, purring ball of fur curled up on your neck or in your lap. Or on your shoulder, perched there and nibbling on your ear, watching everything you're doing, like Morris did with my husband this morning. Priceless.

There are advantages to having two kittens versus one, too. They keep each other company while we're gone, and keep each other occupied a lot. Plus, you get double the cuteness, and double balls of fur in your lap. Of course, when they're feeling particularly mischievous, then it's double trouble.

On to the boring subject of my running. :-) Last night (at 8:00pm, no less) I ran 3 miles, then this morning I ran 2 miles to make up for only running about 1.6 miles on Wednesday, so that I could still get my mileage in for the week. My legs felt stiff and heavy during yesterday's run, and last night when I went to bed, I had some pain just to the left of my tailbone and down into my left leg. I wonder if running through the mall with my daughter yesterday afternoon might have contributed to that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was a muscle spasm deep within the muscle there. Massaging and stretching and doing my version of a shortcut to "foam rolling" didn't help, so finally I took some ibuprofen and after about twenty minutes, relief. This morning I woke up early and the pain was gone, and my legs felt good, so my 2 mile run went well, save a little bit of stiffness. I took it nice and easy to make sure I wasn't overdoing it, since I don't usually run two days in a row, and it's also the first time I've run 5 miles in two days.

This morning has been a lazy, playful kitten-filled Saturday morning for the most part, then this afternoon we plan to get in a matinee, maybe Madagascar 3, then tonight we're going to see my 12-year old niece perform in her end of the school year dance performance. Should be a fun day. My next run will be on Monday. It will be a 3-3-3 week, three runs of three miles each. The week after that will be a 4-3-4, followed by a 5-3-4. I cannot believe I am going to be running 5 miles, then a couple of weeks after that, 6 miles. It wasn't that long ago that it was hard for me to imagine running 3 miles without stopping.

A Thunderstorm Run

I didn't get to run this morning because of storms in the area, but tonight all was calm when I headed out to run. It was almost dark, so I took my tiny flashlight in my pocket in case I needed it on the way back.

As I was doing my warm-up walk, it started to rain very lightly, but I didn't think much of it. I figured maybe it would just be a light rain, no big deal. I felt really good tonight once I started running, and was bookin' it. I was trying not to run too fast, since the Smartcoach training program wants me to run at a slow pace, though a little faster than previously. I couldn't seem to help myself, though. I just felt so good.

The rain began to get harder and harder, however. At first I figured, okay, I can deal with this. This is fun, running in the rain, getting soaked. I was actually looking forward to the rest of the run, despite having to finally take my glasses off and put them in my pocket, and having to constantly wipe the rain out of my eyes. No worries about getting too hot and sweaty! The rain made it nice and cool.

Running without my glasses in the rain was interesting, though. My vision is something like 20/250 without glasses. Yah. Good thing the majority of my run involves very little traffic. LOL. As it was, I was having fun figuring out where the deep puddles were so I could try and avoid them. I tried not to let the fact that my socks, shoes and clothes were getting wetter by the minute bother me. Though it was hard to ignore my sopping wet running bra that was, um, making things feel kinda weird in there. Haha. But I was willing to tough it out.

Then the thunder and lightening came. Ugh.

Time to turn around. And I was only a little under a mile into my run. At least I would be getting a total of about 1.75 miles if I ran all the way back.

On the way back, it got worse. Harder rain, and more lightening, this time it lit up the sky. Time to call my husband, since I was still about a mile away from my house (a mile doesn't seem like a lot unless your dodging lightening bolts, lol). I knew it would take him awhile to get to me because he had to get my 5-year old daughter ready and load her up in the van, so I just kept running, and I'm pretty sure I picked up my pace.

Then the wind came. Now the rain was coming at me sideways, like pellets. But I refused to stop running, so I just gritted my teeth, put my arm up to protect my face, and kept going, prayed it wasn't the beginning of a hail storm.

As I ran past the McDonald's where I figured my husband would be waiting by that time in the parking lot, I didn't see him, and the lightening had let up, though the hard rain had not, so I continued to run. I picked up my pace even more to see if I could make it to the long dirt road that leads to our house before my husband got to the end of it to pull out onto the highway, because I had told him I would meet him at the McDonald's, so he might not have seen me on the sidewalk in the pouring down rain.

And I made it! I turned and kept running down the dirt road, where I usually do my cool-down walk, and still no husband. I finally had to stop and walk at that point, though, because the puddles were just too deep there. Then I saw headlights. Phew.

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to finish my run, but I can always try again tomorrow morning. At least now I can say I ran in my first thunderstorm. Ha.

4 miles!

I did it. My first 4 miles, and without stopping. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! Felt so good.

My pace was a bit slower, 12:02, instead of my usual 11-something, but my legs were pretty stiff today. Exertion-wise, I could have run faster, but my legs just wouldn't cooperate. In fact, when I was nearing 3 miles, my legs were getting so stiff that I had to literally force my legs to keep running.

I used music this time. I don't have an i-pod or MP3 player yet, so I just played the music that's on my phone. So there I was, running down the road with music blaring from my pocket. It was the first time I ran with music, and I think I'm going to make it a regular habit now. It gave me something to focus on besides running, and made the time go by so much faster. Not to mention giving me that little 'umph' now and then. :-)

1.75 on Wed; a GREAT 3 on Fri; and a flip-flop run on Sat

It wasn't until Wednesday that the weather from the tropical storm improved enough for me to run. It was an especially tough run that day, too, and I was only able to run 1.75 miles. Friday, however, was a different story altogether. For the first time, running 3 miles felt...well, almost easy! I hope it's because I'm finally getting stronger and not just because it happened to be cloudy with a light rain that day, making the heat more bearable.

I can't tell you how good it felt to not want to stop and walk at any point during the 3 miles. In fact, I was tempted to sprint the last mile, but made myself hold back.

Then Saturday, I felt so energetic. I drove out to my brother's house to park so we could walk to the beach from there, but instead of walking, I jogged. In my flip-flops, no less. While pushing my 56-lb daughter in a 10-lb Graco stroller (at least, it feels like it weighs 10 lbs. LOL). My leg muscles felt a little tight after running in my flip flops, but after a few minutes, I was fine. I had a blast swimming and playing with my daughter in the tidal pool that had formed on the beach, and, thanks to neglecting my back with the sunscreen spray, wound up with a nice sunburn to prove it. Thank the dear Lord for aloe.

Tomorrow morning, or rather, several hours from now as it is after midnight, I will (for real this time) be running my first 4-miler. Let's hope I can get up early to do it, as it's supposed to be a scorcher tomorrow! Better get to bed.

oops.

I thought my first 4-mile run was this Monday, but when I looked at the training schedule again, I saw that it was next Monday (June 4). Ack. Well, this week will be my first week running 3 miles for all 3 days, at least.

I'm disappointed and relieved all at the same time. Just as well, though, as we have a tropical storm moving in tonight, and we're expecting a lot of rain through Tuesday. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning there might be enough of a break in the rain so that I can run 3 miles, as the worst of the winds should be gone by then. Maybe that will be a good motivator for me to not stop running for the entire 3 miles so I can get it done sooner and miss the rain.

Accomplishment.

Wednesday was to be another 3 mile easy run, but I wound up only running about 2.5 miles of it. Even though that's only a half mile shy of it, I still felt disappointed in myself that I had stopped to walk several times. The only thing I felt good about was the fact that the total distance ran/walked was about 3.5 miles total.

Then yesterday, I decided to get back to doing the Ironstrength workout. Again, I felt a little discouraged that I had to do a very scaled down version of it, and even then, I was huffing and puffing. On one of the exercises, I really struggled.

Today, Smartcoach told me to run 2 easy miles. During the run, I started thinking about how I've been viewing myself and my running, and realized that I've been expecting to perform Olympic feats in order to have that sense of accomplishment. Okay maybe not Olympic feats, but much better "feats" than what I've been doing. And I realized... I've been too hard on myself.

I am unique as a runner. I can't compare myself to anyone else, or even to any plan out there that expects me to be at a certain level by a certain time frame. I haven't been an athlete all my life, and it wasn't until the past couple of years that I have set out to become one. So I need to go easier on myself, not compare myself to anyone else, and allow myself to feel the accomplishment of simply getting out there and doing it.

Sure, the woman on that Ironstrength workout makes it look easy as pie. But I'm not her. Who cares if I couldn't do the full version of it and struggled with one of the exercises? I am at where I am at, and I will get better over time. At least I'm attempting it. At least I got out there and ran today, despite sore legs from the workout yesterday. I could have stayed home and enjoyed the air conditioning.

The 2 mile run went better, by the way. I didn't stop, despite wanting to. And I felt accomplished at the end. :-)

Tomorrow I plan to do the Ironstrength workout again, then Monday will be my very first 4-mile run. Since my husband will be off that day for Memorial Day, I'm thinking about maybe driving to a park that I love to do it. It will have to be early, though. I really don't want to run 4 miles in the heat. Wish me luck. I'm not going to expect myself to run the whole 4 miles without stopping, but I am going to expect myself to feel good about trying.

Better run, yet still tough.

Interesting way to think of sweating. Might not mind it so much next time.

Today's "3-mile Easy Run," or actually, 3.1-mile run, as it turned out, went much better than Saturday's run. Somewhere between mile two and three, however, it started to get tough. It was heating up, my leg muscles were getting tight, and the sweat was pouring off of me.

Got.to.get.up.earlier.to.run.

I finally looked through all the information yesterday from the race packet of the 5K Race I ran in April (do I procrastinate, or what?), and discovered that there is another 5K race on June 9; however, the cost to register would be much higher than most ~ $70 at this point, since I missed early registration. It sounds like it would be a nice run, on the beach, but I just don't know if I want to shell out $70 to run my butt off. The women do get a nice necklace just for finishing, but I don't know... we'll see.

In September there's a 10K run. I'll have to think about that one. Would I be ready for a 10K that soon? Do I even want to run a 6.2 mile race yet? Right now running just 4 miles seems daunting to me. (Still need to get that ipod, by the way.) We'll see how I progress through the summer.

Officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman

I like Doberman Pinchers. As long as they stay on the other side of the fence, that is.

I love how strong and fierce and sleek and fit they look, though. I wouldn't mind having a body like that someday. Strong, fierce, sleek, fit.

Speaking of Dobermans, I officially met Mr. Whiz-past-me and his doberman yesterday. More on that in a minute.

Saturday morning I didn't make it to the 5K race. Many factors played into it, but I'll spare you the details. It's just as well, though, because Saturday evening, I decided to take my daughter in the big Graco stoller and go for my own 5K run on my usual 5K route, and realized pretty quickly that if I had tried to run in the 5K race, I probably would not have done too well. It was one of those days when your body just isn't up for running. I wound up letting my daughter get out of the stroller and we ran/walked together for the 5K route.

Along the way, we met Mr. Whiz-past me and his doberman, who was actually walking this time, with a friend, who also had a dog, a boxer. My daughter saw the dogs first, and yelled out to the guys, asking if she could pet their dogs. They said it was fine, and as we walked over to them, I started to recognize who one of the guys was, and we introduced ourselves and started talking. Turns out, he runs mainly for his health, because he his cholesterol is too high. You would never know that looking at him, as he looks very fit. Just goes to prove that you don't have to be overweight to have an issue with cholesterol.

After that meet and greet session, we started to run again when my daughter spotted a puppy in someone's yard, so I reluctantly stopped again so we could get the skin licked off our faces and necks and meet the puppy's owner, a big guy of African descent, and discovered he was a personal trainer. My daughter had a great time playing with the puppy (another boxer, by the way) while the guy answered my questions and gave me some tips and advice. He said that when I was ready, he'd write me out a plan for strength training. I asked him about the Ironstrength workout, and he said that was a great one to do to build my strength as a runner, especially my core strength.

I need to get back to that workout, by the way. I've been slacking.

This week will be interesting, as the Smartcoach training plan will be upping the ante a bit. I'll be running two 3-mile runs this week instead of just one, tomorrow and again on Wednesday, then a 2-mile run on Friday. The week after that it will be three 3-mile runs. The Monday following that week will be my first 4-mile run.

I'm looking forward to it, because it will challenge me and I love a good challenge.

Drizzly Run

Today was supposed to be an easy 2-mile run, but I did NOT feel like running due to some nausea and feeling a bit tired, and I almost didn't.

But then I remembered reading recently somewhere online about an Olympic athlete with a gland infection who ran against his doctor's advice and wound up performing his best ever, and then remembered a quote by another athlete to not let anyone tell you that you can't run that far, or that fast, or jump that high, because the human spirit can be indomitable. So I figured, I had it in me, I just had to decide to do it.

I walked into my bedroom to change into my running clothes and stared at the bed for a moment. The covers were calling my name. But I told myself, "Just get your running gear on, and then if you still don't feel like running, then don't." Once my running gear was on, I then switched gears and said, "Okay. I'm just going to do it, despite how I feel."

The run wasn't a total misery. I was a little tired starting out, but then it got easier at about the one mile mark. It was cloudy with a light drizzly rain, which made it a little bit cooler. Still humid, but cooler than if it had been sunny. My pace: 11:29.

The Spa Me 5K race is three days from now. As of right now, I am planning to run in it and just have fun, so I will skip Friday's run on the training schedule and let Saturday's 5K race be my 3rd run for this week.

3 mile run, and a sigh of relief.

Relief.

Friday morning I ran another 2 miles at an 11:22 pace, then today was my Long Run Day and the Smartcoach Plan told me to run 3 miles at an easy pace of 12:31, which is one second slower than the previous recommended pace. I had to laugh at that. One second slower? Um, okay. I'll try my best to make my overall pace today for three miles exactly one second slower. LOL. All kidding aside, the main point was to run a little slower, which I did, and wound up running an 11:30 pace.

I was actually sort of dreading today's run, only because it was longer and I hadn't gotten sufficient sleep the past couple of nights. I would have rather relaxed and did some work on the computer, or even just did some housework. But I made myself get my running gear on, and just went.

Then I was surprised that it wasn't a bad run at all. For the first time in a long time, running 3 miles seemed almost easy. Because I was running slower, I didn't feel like I was killing myself. The only thing that bothered me was the heat, but it was so much more bearable at the slower pace.

It was such a relief, and very encouraging to me. I think I might be able to do this.

Smartcoach.

Instead of a coach whistle, I decided to post the above picture instead. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

On the subject of whistles, I'm hoping the Smartcoach running plan from Runnersworld.com will be just the "whistle" I need to motivate me again. If today was any indication, I should be good to go. Many thanks to my DailyMile friend, Mr. Brent A., who suggested it to me.

Smartcoach set up an 11-week plan to train me for my next 5K race (not the one on May 19, obviously--I'll just have fun with that one--but the July 21 race), and I was surprised at all the EASY runs it would have me doing. And when I say easy, I'm talking a 12:30 pace! That's even too slow for me, LOL. More on that later. It will have me increase my distance, but gradually, and still at a slow pace, throwing in only occasional speedwork and tempo runs. By week 7, my long run will be 4 miles, then 5 miles by week 8, and 6 miles by week 9. 

Needless to say, I had been getting ahead of myself. Quite literally. I've been pushing myself too hard, too soon. Not distance-wise, necessarily, but pace-wise. No wonder I've gotten discouraged lately. I was making it too hard for myself, and it was becoming a drudgery. It might be different if I had been athletic all my life. But I haven't. My idea of being athletic up until the past year or so was pushing myself away from the computer several times a day to go use the bathroom. Okay, maybe not that bad.

The Smartcoach plan predicts that I will be able to run the 5K Race in July at around a 9:57 pace, which would put my time at 30:54. That sounds pretty reasonable, but I would love it if I could do it in 30 minutes flat.

I did the first run of the plan today. "Easy run, 2 miles, @12:30." Not at 12:30pm, haha, just thought I'd throw that in there. A 12:30 pace sounded slow to me, but it's funny how it motivated me at the same time. It screamed, "EASY!" The heat didn't deter me one bit this time. It felt like a drill sergeant had just told me, "At ease." I could relax, maybe even enjoy the run a little. And knowing it would be an easy run, I started off right from my house this time, instead of doing my usual 5-minute warm-up walk, which made the majority of the run under the cover of trees, making the heat much more bearable.

I tried running at what I "thought" was a 12:30 pace, but in the end, wound up averaging 11:07. I think I would have had to drag my feet to run any slower. LOL. But just knowing I could slow down even more if I wanted to made for a very relaxing run. It felt good.

Dogs and Motivation

Dogs crack me up. I love their motivation to do things they want, even when it gets hard. They don't give up easy, that's for sure. Maybe I need to get a dog, it sure would help on those days when I don't feel too motivated.

Like today. And a lot of days lately. I'm not sure where my passion for running has run off to, but I'm not liking it one bit. Maybe this is just a phase and I'll get through it?

Yesterday morning, I wimped out and did the elliptical for 30 minutes instead of running. I was thinking, "Run in the heat and humidity, or stay inside and do the elliptical in the air conditioning in front of the TV?" Option B just sounded so much better. I simply wasn't in the mood to deal with the heat. What I want to know is, though, is why wasn't I motivated enough to get up earlier and run so that I didn't have to worry about the heat?

I have no idea what is wrong with me. Then again this morning, I woke up early, yet couldn't motivate myself to get out of bed. When I returned home, I set out to run at least 5K, but only ran 2.1 miles. The motivation just wasn't there.

Guess I just need to hang in there and "keep doing it" even when I don't feel like it. Maybe my passion for running will return soon.

Trail Running.

Today I did some trail running at a beautiful park that is, unfortunately, a good distance from my house. The picture above is not from that park, but resembles it somewhat. I was too lazy at this late hour to upload my own picture. Later I do plan to upload a picture of it, though, as it is by far my favorite place to run.

I do think I'm going to try and swing running at this park least once a week from now on. It is just too good of a place to run not to. It has a trail specifically for runners and is a perfect one mile loop, so no measuring required.

This was my first run in about five days and it felt great to be out there again. For some reason I wasn't feeling well for a few days, and my motivation was lacking, but now I feel better and can't wait for my next run. I need to prepare for my next 5K race, after all, which will be on May 19. Today I was pleased to see that my pace had improved some. Even though I only had time to run two miles, I was able to maintain a better pace for the entire two miles, which is an improvement from my normal habit of slowing down after the first mile.

Trail running is different, that's for sure. You can't just run absentmindedly. You have to be very present and alert, navigating around roots, rocks, pine cones and uneven surfaces, making sure you don't take a wrong turn and wind up in the middle of a lake. Oh and did I mention dogs? They and their owners like those trails, too. And they leave presents. At least they're cute to watch as you run by. Most of them don't even bother to bark. They're trail hardened and runner immune. Oh. It's just another one of those "I'm-only-teasing-not-really-going-to-attack-you" running humans. Never mind. I'll go back to marking my territory now.

It's never boring, as running down long stretches of straight, paved, sidewalk and telephone pole-lined roads can be, and I like that. And I also like the fact that there are no cars whizzing by, no stares from the people inside them, no exhaust fumes flying, no music blaring. Just the sound of the rustle of leaves, lake water splashing, ducks quacking, geese wings taking flight, squirrels scurrying. I definitely want to do more trail running.

Me vs. the heat and humidity

"Whine, whine, whine." No, that wasn't a dog, that was me.

Me + heat = Big Wimp.

I honestly did not care one iota that I stopped to walk during my run today. I was a happy wimp.

That is until the runner-out-of-nowhere showed up again. I was really hoping it wasn't one of his run days, or that he had run earlier. Or at least if he did show up, that it would be while I was running and not walking. I did do a lot of running during my run, after all.

I kept checking behind me, but there was no sign of him. Then, just when I thought it was safe and I could walk along happily with no guilt, I heard something. Oh no, don't tell me, I thought and turned around to look. Sure enough, there he was, about 200 yards behind me, this time with his dog. He had caught me. Again. And I'm sure he had a nice little chuckle to himself when he saw me turn around to look, then immediately start running again. I really was planning to run again, I was! Just not right...then.

I could hear him coming and cringed at how quickly he was gaining on me. I tried as discreetly as I could to pick up my pace, but it was no use, next thing I knew he and his Doberman Pincher were whizzing past me. I think I even felt a breeze. He's a guy, and guys can naturally run faster, I told myself. But um, he should have at least felt like it was even the tiniest bit of challenge to overtake me, instead of feeling like he was flying past some inanimate object.

This time I wasn't about to give him an excuse for my walking-until-he-saw-me stunt, because I'm sure he wouldn't have bought it this time. So in response to his, "Good morning," I simply said the same, maybe a little too cheerfully.

All joking aside, one thing is for sure-- I need to start getting up early enough to run before taking my daughter to school, now that it's heating up here in Florida.Then again, Mr. Whiz-Past-Me and his Doberman might miss me. ;-)

By the way, I found out recently about another 5K race that will be on May 19, and this time it will be right down the road from my house! It's at a Golf and Country Club. I drove by there and it looks like it will be a really nice area to run in. I need to find out where the route will be, though, as the link to the map on the website doesn't seem to be working. I'd really like to start practicing on the race route.

Hopefully my motivation will pick up a little more soon, too. I seem to be going through a phase right now where I'm not quite as motivated as I was. Maybe it's because the "newness" of being back to running has worn off a bit now? Today I just didn't care that I had stopped to walk, which is not like me. Hopefully it will pass and I'll be back to my old self soon.

Challenges.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were no challenges in life? If everything was a breeze and reaching your dreams was a walk in the park?

But then again, where would the victory be in that? You might win, but it would feel... empty. Shallow.

And you wouldn't learn anything, either. Challenges and adversities teach us things about ourselves. It brings the yucky stuff to the surface. Do you tend to be lazy? Try exercising on a consistent basis. You'll find out just how lazy you are. Then you have a decision to make. Keep being lazy? Or change?

Do you tend to give up easily? Do you get excited about something, do it for awhile, then give up when it starts to get a little tough? Try to do something that you've never done before, especially if it's outside your comfort zone, and you'll find out real quick just how much you're willing to stick things out.

The challenges that we face when we try to do something new are what present us with an opportunity to change, or not. If we are willing to change, we can continue pursuing--maybe even reach or achieve--our goal or dream. If we aren't willing to change, however, we will stay right where we are: not meeting our goal, not achieving our dream. There's an old saying: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." But there's a variation on that that I like even better: "When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher." Being tough is tough. Not being tough is... well, easy.

Yesterday and today, running was tough again. Just when I thought it was getting easier, my right shin made it impossible to run further than a half a mile yesterday. Then today, it was hard running 3.1 miles again, and not because of my shin. It was doing better. It was just harder to run today, and hotter. During the last stretch of mile two, it started to get really tough. I pushed myself, giving myself a pep talk, but then finally I didn't care about the pep talk anymore. I stopped to walk and had no plans to start running again. I was going to enjoy walking the rest of the way, thank you very much. I came up with some pretty good reasons...er, excuses, too: my legs felt stiff; my right shin was better but probably didn't need to be pushed; I'm not running in the 5K race on Saturday, anyway, so what does it matter?

Then, surprise! A runner came whizzing past me from behind. I wasn't expecting it, since, in the area where I run most of the time, it's usually just me and the deer. As soon as I recovered from being startled, feelings of guilt washed over me and I blurted out to him with a laugh, "My body just isn't up to running today." He turned his head slightly to one side and smiled in acknowledgement, waved a quick wave, and ran on. I watched him for a moment, then started running again. I just couldn't take it. Another runner was running past me and I was walking. I ran behind him for awhile, at about the same pace, then he--being from the neighborhood behind me--turned and ran back past me again, and I felt proud then, even if I was scrunching up my face in agony. I kept running and finished out the route. I admit, though, it was a happy moment of relief when it was time to stop and walk again.

On the cool-down walk home, I found myself fighting self-doubts. Why am I putting myself through this? Is it really worth it? Do I really want to keep running, especially with the Florida summer heat approaching?

And the answer is, Yes, because I want to. Deep down, it's my passion, despite the harder days and the setbacks along the way that threaten to make me forget that passion. And because I need to, because it teaches me things about myself, things I need to change.

Starting to get easier.

Yesterday morning I ran another 3.1 miles, and for the first time, it felt a little easier. It finally began to feel shorter and not such a long haul. What a great feeling. It gave me hope that maybe I'm not so nuts for doing this after all; that toughing it out when you don't feel like it really, really does pay off.

I ran a different route this time, and it was a nice change of pace. It was a bit hillier, and the scenery was beautiful.

As for the 5K race this coming Saturday, I am thinking now of skipping it after finding out what the temperature is supposed to be that day. 85 degrees Fahrenheit for a high, and the race is at 4:30pm. Toughing it out is one thing. Being smart is another. I don't feel that I'm ready to fight that kind of heat just yet. Maybe once I have a few more months of running under my belt. But right now, no.

I won't count it out entirely until closer to that time, since forecasters are known to be way off at times.

Happy running, my friends (or walking, or swimming, or bicycling, or whatever your thing is). :-)

3.3 miles

I have been wondering lately if I need to start focusing more on building my endurance. I seem to be able to run up to 2.2 miles without much difficulty, but beyond that, it starts to get hard. I have been concerned more with building speed up to now, but I think I'm going to shift from that to working on endurance for awhile.  Then once I have more endurance, I'll work on my speed, at least while I'm still only running in 5K races. Eventaully I'd like to build up to longer distances. 8K first, then 10K, then a half-marathon. I don't know if I'll ever want to do a marathon, but that's mainly because right now, just running 5K seems tough enough to me. LOL.

I'll build my endurance by running more longer runs, but at a slower pace. Maybe run four days per week instead of my usual three, and possibly even build up to running five days per week. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably only do two longer runs this upcoming week, though (at the beginning of the week), since I'll need to taper off for the 5K race next Saturday (April 28).

Today I ran 3.3 miles (a little over 5K), and it was a tough run. It was an evening run, and since it's pretty warm here right now, the heat didn't help. At one point, it felt like my heart was doing something funny, so I checked my pulse and it was definitely too fast--it was racing--so I slowed my pace for awhile to give my heart rate a chance to slow down some.

Then my legs started to feel so heavy during about the last half mile. I kept telling myself to pick my feet up, because every now and then I would "shuffle." No tripping allowed, I also told myself. It can be bad for your running health.

At one point, the only reason I kept going was because of my nice little self-pep-talk. I noticed something, too. When I focused on the negative aspects of how I felt, it seemed much harder to keep going. But when I told myself I was strong, that I could do this, that 3.1 miles was easy, that I could make it to the fire hydrant, to the gate, to that corner, to the creek bridge... I would literally feel my body getting stronger, and it would seem easier. Not easy, mind you, but definitely easier.

To my runner friends out there who might be reading this: What do you do during your tough runs to help motivate you?

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.