I'll keep running....
Because it gives me perspective.
Now I realize my problems aren't so big.
My life is pretty great afterall.
And a mile is a lot longer than it seems in the car.
I think I have decided on some goals for the Surf City Marathon...
1. Finish under 3:45:00 (8:34 pace- I've run faster than this throughout training, should be able to do this no problem as long as nothing crazy happens and it would be right about 20 minutes faster than last year in Miami so no matter what I will be happy with this finish!)
2. Finish under 3:40:00 (8:23 pace- I have consistently run this pace in my long runs, including my 24 miler yesterday, and still felt good. I have a really good feeling I can make this happen and would be psyched!)
3. Finish under 3:35:00 and BQ!!!! (about 8:11 pace to be safe. Faster than my usual average pace when running alone, with no outside stimulation, competition, motivation, or extra adrenaline. I am not going to kill myself for this goal, but it would be totally amazing! I can't believe how much time I have taken off since training last year (even with taking the whole summer and a good chunk of the fall off from running to play volleyball) and had no idea that this would ever realistically be a goal for me! You never know what is going to happen when you get me into a race situation!! I would be super psyched to BQ but I am not at all going to be disappointed if I don't....there's always MHRM in October!)
Decided I needed another day off after only getting 2.5 hours of sleep last night because for some reason my stupid hips/side of my butt were wicked achy! They don't really hurt but I couldn't get comfortable enough in bed to actually fall asleep until 3am and unfortunately for me, I have to get up at 5:30 for work.
I did get in my daily 4 mile walk to/from work which I haven't been keeping track of on here, but it has been every work day except about 5 when the weather was particularly hideous, since early september...so at least I have that!
Some light stretching tonight and headed to bed early so I can get up even earlier to get a run in before work because I have to bring Emma to the airport then have a dinner date with my long lost ex-marathon partner Jenny after work. One of these days I'll have 5 minutes to sit and take a breath...
Ah still icky sick and have absolutely zero energy! Took a 3 hour nap after work yesterday, woke up, ate some homemade coconut blueberry ice cream while watching The Little Mermaid, and then went right back to bed. I knew I needed to at least move my legs today since it is super nasty raining and I didn't get to walk to work so I went down to the treadmill and pushed hard to finish 3 miles running and almost another mile walking. Did a round of my stretches and foam rolled my hip flexors like I learned in PT yesterday and plan to go through it all 2 more times tonight before I head back there tomorrow.
Still feeling icky and have no energy but I did 3.75 miles on the treadmill before PT this morning at 8:00 pace for all but the warm up/cool down. Ah.... PT was good today though, we found a way to take some pressure off my hip flexors and hopefully a better way to stretch one without compressing the other which HURTS! Got some good butt strengthening exercises to help with that and the IT/knee crap! Better luck tomorrow!
Having not run much all week, being icky sick, and having a volleyball tournament tomorrow, I went out, after contemplating a million excuses to skip the run, for an easy 12-14 miles just to get some miles on my legs. The first 4 miles or so sucked, if I wasn't that far from home, I would have quit and called it a day. But then, I don't know if it was the PT or rest or watching The Lion King this morning or whatever, I just felt good, my stride felt much more open than usual and I just went with it, figuring I'd take the speed while I was feeling it and I could just slow down when I couldn't hold it...but I stuck with it and getting close to home right around the half marathon distance, I went for that and was psyched and shocked to see I did it sub 8:00 pace and broke the 1:45:00 I was planning to push hard for in my next 1/2 race! Looks like I'll have to set a new goal!!!
