Let’s talk about running this week.
After last week’s debacle of a long run, I made a big effort to power through and run each mile on the plan this week. I’m getting down to the wire (CIM is 5 weeks away!) and knew I couldn’t afford to miss any more long runs.
The beginning of this week started off great. On Monday, I got in an early morning run which I haven’t done since before my exam (mornings have been filled with studying the past few weeks!) and it reminded me just how much I love morning runs when my body feels fresh first thing.
On Tuesday, the running high continued with one of the best runs I’ve ever done…8 miles after work and from the very start to very end, I had the greatest running high EVER: low heart rate, no fatigue…never had a run like that in my life. A big smile afterwards 🙂
Then came Thursday’s long run (I decided to do my long run earlier since I knew Halloweekend would be crazy packed!)…my 2nd attempt at the intimidating 15 miler. Between being sore from the previous 3 day’s workouts and having work on my mind, I wasn’t in a great spot. The first 9 miles went just okay…and then things went downhill very quickly.
As I was walk-running, negative thoughts flooded my head and I went into a pretty dark place. I was so frustrated, demotivated and ANGRY for lots of different things: Why was I not strong enough to get through this? Why was the 2nd attempt of this 15 miler even worse than the first? Why did I even sign up for this marathon? My life would be so much easier without these frustrating workouts! I thought about quitting approximately 180 times and even contemplated down-grading to the half marathon on December 3rd…
Around mile 11 was when I FINALLY committed and told myself that I was going to finish this run even if I had to crawl to the end. I really needed this win and didn’t want to face failing again. It wasn’t exactly the most positive pep talk (I like to think that there’s more to running than fear of failure…), but it got me to the end.
I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes runs just suck. They do. THEY. JUST. SUCK. From beginning to end, sometimes your body will reject every step and your mind will go into dark places, but it’s these tough runs that make us much stronger. If all our runs were easy and smooth sailing, then we wouldn’t have anything to draw from when the going gets tough. When it’s mile 22 of the marathon, I’ll definitely remember this 15-miler when I had to dig deep and get through the pain ❤
Overall, I’m VERY proud to have finished each mile this week. Crazy how there were some of the best and worst runs of my entire life all packed in one week 😛
My last piece of news is that I found a half marathon for next weekend!! My last half marathon got cancelled a few weeks ago so I have been dying to get out there and race again. I still haven’t signed up so it’s not official yet, but I may have a race recap for you next weekend if all goes to plan 🙂
Week 8 of marathon training
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: 8 miles
Wednesday: 60 minutes of yoga with Anna
Thursday: 15 miles
Friday: REST
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: REST
Total = 33 miles!
I Run Like A Girl 