Logging the Miles- Week 1
August 2, 2011As I’ve said before I’m a big quote enthusiast, to the point that I’ve signed up to receive a daily quote from Runner’s World, which I read before I get out of bed every day. Most of them give me a little smile as I role out of bed and curse that I have to leave the comfy, warm covers. Last week I read this quote and seriously started laughing out loud in bed…Tom nor Zilla were too pleased that I was waking them up with my laughter.
“There’s nothing quite like the feeling you get from knowing you’re in good physical condition. I wake up alert and singing in the morning, ready to go”.
Stan Gerstein, runner
I’m not exactly sure who Stan Gerstein is, I Googled and nothing profound popped up on the first page, but seriously?! I’m in the best physical shape of my life and I am by no means jumping out of bed singing in the morning. I’ve logged more miles than I did when I was an all-state runner in high school and at neither times in my life have I ever enjoyed waking up in the morning. And yes, I get enough sleep, take my vitamins, and eat well. I just don’t notice a zest for the morning when I’m in better physical shape. Good for Stan though, whoever you are.
As for my training schedule this past week, it was of course hot as the sun still in central Indiana but I refuse to run inside because I hate treadmills. I could get up early when it’s not as hot but well back to my previous three paragraphs, I hate mornings and it’s truly not that much cooler at 6am than 5pm. So I drank some more water, ran in a sports bra, hit the trails and took on the heat full force!
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| Source: Pinterst |
Monday: I ran 3 miles on one of my loops around our house just to get my legs back after taking the last week pretty much off.
Tuesday: I was supposed to go to yoga but a work thing came up and I was none too happy about missing my class. So I did the best I could do on my own with yoga. I find it really hard to push myself to new heights in a pose without others around. Having three hairy dogs in the room just doesn’t have the same energy as other yogis.
Wednesday: Tom wanted to get back into running so we hit the trails at the local park. The last mile wasn’t his favorite but he ran strong and we finished 4 miles.
Thursday: This was probably the hottest day of the year. I of course had in my mind that I was going to do my workout on a track near our house. I haven’t been on a track since I stopped running at IU. This was going to be interesting. I jogged the mile to the track as my warm up, and then I had 2x 1600 at 8:26 pace, then a mile home. Well, when I put my toe on that “start” line I was off, the mindset of racing came back and I blew through my first mile at 8:03 and I was trying to run slow, I guess that’s a good thing. I walked a few laps, told myself I really needed to hit 8:26 pace so I knew what it felt like so I could try to run that for many miles, nope, ran an 8:06 mile. My face was as red as a cherry tomato the rest of the night, I guess that means it’s a successful day.
Friday: Off
Saturday: Manual labor around the house. I was helping, Tom didn’t force me J
Sunday: 9 miles on the trails. I’m glad I had SA to run 7 miles of this with because it was going to be a long day. We hit 2 miles and I thought I had been running for 5 miles, that’s always a blow to the ego. Luckily we found our groove and the last 5 miles went pretty quickly. It amazing how well you can get to know someone on a long run or bike ride. The last 2 miles by myself were completed because of my stubborn personality and I was determined to see my Garmin watch hit 9 miles. Not 8.80 or even 8.95, so this resulted in me running around the parking lot a few times until I heard the beep of 9 miles.
Overall it was a good week! I felt great but most of all I am still enjoying running and pushing myself to new levels but of course being smart in the heat! Until next week, get out an run!
L