A Mile or More in My [Running] Shoes

This sunny Saturday afternoon I made my way to Central Park for my scheduled 9 miler. My legs are pretty dead after my speedy 5 miles on Wednesday followed by two consecutive nights of Insanity workouts, but this provided the perfect opportunity to work on my mental toughness.

When I started running it was easy to give in to the exhaustion and a lot of times, I talked myself out of finishing scheduled mileage because it was “just too hard.” I quickly discovered that with running, as with most things, cutting corners is not the way to get things done. (Ok, it gets things done, but the results aren’t the greatest.)

Eventually, I began to focus on the things I was telling myself while I was training. I began reminding myself that when I was feeling tired, there was still more in the tank, I just had to be willing to work and to use it. I had to tell myself to trust my training. Today was a good time for me to work on all of those things again.

When I finished I took a peek at my Garmin and noted my 9 miles were completed in 1:22:21. My jaw dropped. Further digging on Runners World confirmed that if I can maintain that pace during a half marathon, I will have my sub-2:00 half marathon (breaking my PR by 11 minutes). It’s all just a matter of putting in the work. 

• Google Hangout: I have been a fan of Skype for a while now, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually used Google Hangout. I love it! I found that I have fewer problems with it when it comes to both image and sound. Yay for seeing friends’ faces and hearing their voices!

• Le Pen pens: I have a strange fondness for office supplies and planners… I like to think of these pens as the adult equivalent of Gelly Roll pens. (C’mon ladies, you know what I’m talking about.) All of the same pretty colors in a more adult package and sans sparkles. Something tells me it would be hard to take someone like me seriously if I sat down to schedule experiments, opened my planner and the pages were covered in sparkly pink pen, BUT the chic sage green pen allows me to be fun and still semi-grown up. 

• My new running shoes: I love these shoes so far. I’ve found that I have IT band trouble, but with these shoes (many thanks to Gazelle Sports in Grand Rapids for helping me find the right fit) I haven’t had a single issue. They’re a little more girly than my previous pair of Asics and I’m ok with that. Girly is just fine when my legs aren’t screaming. 

• Pandora Radio: This isn’t anything new, but with my purple iPod nano’s departure to the great Apple Store in the Sky, I have resorted to using the Pandora app on my phone for tuneage while running. I’m happy to report my mourning period is over and that I’ve run back to the loving arms of Pandora. I appreciate the mix of songs and artists on each of my stations and I really like that the music is based on my history of “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” votes for each song or artist. It’s also great for at-work listening and for finding new music. 

What are some of your favorite things at the moment?

So this morning I failed to wake up to run my 4-5 miles… BUT I promised myself a good ass kicking once work was over. 

I strapped on my shoes and hopped on the train to Columbus Circle. Once I got there, I ran. According to my Garmin, my first mile was done in 7:54. (Whoa Nelly!* Pull it back…) I slowed to an 8:20 pace and then realized that that was still a little too fast and then I settled in to a pace around 9:00. Three sweaty laps of the Lower Loop (5.01 miles and 43:58) later, I realized that I had completed one of my best runs to date. 

My running has been inconsistent, and I have been, well, there’s really no other word for it, lazy. If I’m going to do as well as I would like to do in my 25k, I really need to buckle down and get serious about my training. A little over 100 days to go until the Fifth Third River Bank Run and I am going to work my ass off to get a PR. (I know, I know… It’s my first 25k, automatically a PR, but I would love to break my half marathon PR time in the process.)

I’ve also upped the ante when it comes to strength training. I’ve added the Insanity workout and while I find myself wanting to switch kick Shaun T. in the balls most of the time, I’m liking the way I feel when it’s done. (Even if it means I have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.) 

So that’s where I am with my running and everything. A bit of a bummer that I couldn’t get my run in this morning, but it seems like the extra sleep came in handy and I totally redeemed myself with tonight’s run. 

*”Whoa Nelly”??? Really? Am I 80? 

When setting your alarm of last defense to wake up for a pre-work run, it is important to make sure the alarm is set for AM and not PM…