Race report

Saturday was the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon. It was great. Great to run it and great to finish it. Here's the low down:

Friday night after work Brenna and I had planned to meet up at my mom's and stay the night there. My mom lives about 10 minutes from the AF high school (where we had to catch the buses). I picked her up and she went with me to get my packet (she'd gotten hers about an hour earlier). There wasn't too much in the bag which kind of made me sad but I realize all the money goes to help those that can't afford cancer treatments and appointments so I can see why we don't have much. I mean we got a shirt and the medals we got at the finish line were pretty nice. So anyway, we hung out for awhile then my mom came back and we hung out talking to her until about 9:30. Then it was time for bed. We had to get up at 3:45 to get to the buses. We didn't want to be first there but didn't want to be last (the last bus took off at 4:45am). I ended up falling asleep fast and sleeping so much better than I ever thought I would. 

The next morning we got there in more than enough time but the lines were HUGE! Actually when we got up to start of the race there were tons of people up there already and more kept coming. There were people everywhere! 2500 to be exact. In one, not so large, parking lot. Brenna and I use the port a potties and then walked around trying to stay warm. It was kind of chilly; probably in the mid 50's. Some people had blankets that they were putting in their bags to be taken back down the canyon. Finally it was time to start. Crazy thing was there were so many people it took us 3 1/2 minutes to get over the actual starting line once it started because of all the people. Even as we ran we both felt like we were elbowing people left and right as we ran. It never really thinned out until the last couple blocks. It was amazing. I've never done any type of race that had that many people in it. 

So my foot...it actually felt amazing until about mile 7. Then i started feeling these twinges on the side of my foot. After about a mile my whole foot hurt. At mile 9 I stopped and walked for a minute (while I drank some water and chomped down a few bits of an energy bar). It actually started feeling worse when I was walking so I ran again. I stopped and walked a couple more times but not for very long each time. I probably walked about a half mile all together. Not too bad I'd say for being "lame."

Also I had no music. NONE! Can you believe my MP3 died at the very beginning?! It had been acting weird for awhile and lately had only been playing for about 2 hrs and then shutting off. So I waited for a couple miles to go by before I turned it on. Halfway through the first song it turned off. I just looked at it like I didn't understand what it had just done. How in the world was I going to run 11 more miles without music? I could enjoy nature...I could talk to others around me...I could listen to myself breathe...nothing really sounded that great to me. I was so ticked. To be honest it really didn't bother me that much until about mile 11. I would have given anything for music those last couple miles. I didn't realize how much it helps push me. How it helps me go that extra amount i don't want to go. I will need to get something a little more reliable before I do any kind of race again. 

Brenna had told me she was going to stay with me the whole race. She'd run a great practice run with Bryce the week before and said she knew what she could do. I told her I didn't want her to. That I wanted her to see what she could do in her first half. She said she'd feel bad if she left me because of my hurt foot. I told her I'd feel bad if she held back for me. We decided we'd play it by ear. During the race at mile 5 I talked her into going on her own. I was glad. I knew I'd held her back some for a few of those miles (all the people held her back for others) but I knew if she took off then she'd still get a pretty good time. Which she did. 

So there I was running 13.1 miles with a hurt foot, by myself, with no music. I did fairly well at pushing myself until I saw the 12 mile mark sign. At that point I just wanted to cry. I still had 1.1 miles to go and I was exhausted. I started walking. Just then I heard "SISTER TOEWS!!" It was one of Dallin's friends that I'd met many times and even saw at my last half (he ran it too). He was so excited to see me and I was happy to have something to make me forgot how miserable i felt. He told me he'd been watching for me all morning, that Dallin told him I was running the race. I told him about my music issue so he ran next to me being my beat box. It was a little annoying but also funny. It gave me that extra energy I needed. 

He stopped after a few feet and went back to his post. I stopped, got a drink at the last water station and took up. I didn't stop the rest of the way. Coming around the last curve I heard my name being yelled. It was my mom, Brooke, my niece Emma and Brenna. She'd finished and come back to yell for me. I gave her a high 5 as I ran by and kept going. My end time was 2:20 and something seconds. A couple minutes slower than my first half marathon but with the no music and my foot I was more than OK with the time. Brenna came in at 2:04 and something seconds. I am so stinkin proud of her. She was awesome. And I know she can probably even do better next time. We had a great time. 

Funny thing is...she's already talking about her next half marathon (I've bowed out but said I'd come watch her finish) and we were talking last night about next year_which one we wanted to do. There's one in Vernal at the beginning of May. The medal is in the shape of a dinosaur. :-) I love that she's so excited about racing now. It's nice to have someone else to talk about it with. 

My foot...it hurt really bad this morning (almost needed crutches) but is feeling better at the moment. Tomorrow will be my first trip to the gym in a week and a half. I'm a little scared. I'm going to have to take it easy. No running. Maybe some rowing. Definitely some sit ups and push ups. I can totally tell it's been a while since I've done crossfit. Dang it. It sure doesn't take long!  

Injuries never happen when you want them to

I didn't write last week. My 11 mile run was good. I felt good but I was really slow. I didn't get any carbs though the day before and didn't have anything more than a sip of Gatorade while I was running. I think all of those things made a difference. Because my body felt like I could go longer I just couldn't go faster.

That was my 11 mile run. Last week was my 12 miler. The last one before my big race. I mapped out a couple different routes. I wanted to find the easiest route. I figured 12 miles was hard enough I didn't need to add tons of hills or new roads on top of it. I planned on getting up at really early Saturday morning to get going and done by 8am. Kim was going to meet me at Macey's (at the end of my route) with Leah for chocolate milk and donuts.

Saturday morning I got up and was at the top of Elk Ridge by 5:45am. It was actually cold! I had to wear a long sleeve shirt over my regular shirt. It hasn't been that cool in awhile. It felt good. There was a slight breeze but it went away as soon as the sun came up (which is pretty normal I've found). I made it to my 1st drink stop at mile 5.6. I felt great. My time was awesome. I'd been averaging a 9:50 min mile. I loved the route and decided I'd maybe use it next time I trained or wanted to do a longer run. I started up again and felt good. But around mile 8 I really started slowing down. By mile 9 I was feeling like I wanted to walk so bad. I'd stopped twice for street lights but that hadn't been enough. When I got to the gas station around mile 10.3 I was more than ready for the break. I got a drink, wiped my face off a little and texted Kim to let him know where I was and when I thought I'd be done. I told him I was ready to walk the rest of the way. And when I left the gas station I really thought I would. But once I started running I went a lot further than I thought. I had to stop again around mile 11 to cross the street. I think that was the last time I walked. I made it until my Garmin dinged at mile 12 running.

I was pretty slow the last few miles but I did it. I made it 12 miles. If I figured out how much I actually walked I'd say I walked about 3 blocks or about 1/4 of a mile. It was interesting...my first 6 miles took 55 minutes but my last 6 miles took 68 minutes.

When I stopped at Macey's I was exhausted but so thrilled I'd made it. Kim drove up about 5 minutes later and we went inside to get some chocolate milk & donuts before getting some groceries.

This is what I was thinking about the last couple miles. I got two of them and they tasted amazing! Chocolate milk makes my stomach hurt a little bit but I've heard its the best thing to drink right after a hard, long run.

After we ate our "breakfast" we walked around the store to get some groceries for the family dinner we were having that night. A few minutes into walking around my right foot started hurting. Bad. Like I was barefoot and stepped on a sharp rock. I hurt. But I kept going. When we got home I helped Kim mow the lawns. By the time I finished I could barely walk. I went inside and put my foot up. It hurt so bad!! By the evening I couldn't walk at all. I Googled my injury and kind of figured out what it was but that didn't make things better. I kept reading "need to not run for a few weeks" "No running". I had my half marathon the next Saturday. I almost cried.

It's now 3 days later. My foot is better but still really sore. At least the shooting pain is gone. Now it's more of a dull ache. I can handle that. Monday morning it hurt so bad I thought for sure I wasn't going to be able to run. I know I can now as long as I stay off it the rest of the week. That's so hard though!! No exercise at all-all week! I haven't thought of anything I could do that wouldn't possibly hurt my foot. And I don't want to chance it at all. I did some abdominal exercises yesterday and may do them again tomorrow morning just so I feel like I did something. I worry about the weight I will have gained by Saturday. But I really worry about the distance ability I will have lost by then. No running for a week and then doing 13.1 miles...what the heck!?

We'll see. Wish me luck!
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Saturday night we had a BBQ. Matthew leaves on Wednesday for the MTC. He'll be gone to Ecuador for 2 years. It's hard to believe. So we decided to have a BBQ. Nice, expensive steaks and great food. It was so good!  Unfortunately Nate didn't come. It was too bad because we wanted to do a family picture too. So we did it without him. It turned out really great I thought. The boys had a good time joking and eating. It was a nice day. Probably nicer if Nathan had been there but nothing we could do about that.

After 6 years of being married here is our first ever family picture. 

I like it. 

Just call me Rocky

Saturday was my first double digit run with this training schedule. I re-read my journal entry from last year. It wasn't good. I put in there that that run was my worst so far. I walked a lot and had a ton of problems. I figured maybe this year would be better. Nope. It was bad as soon as I started. Problem...I had to use the restroom. Even though I'd gone twice before leaving the house for some reason I needed to go again. And my stomach was upset. I'd carb loaded just a little too much the day before and I was feeling it. I had my Garmin on so I figured I would just do my route through Elk Ridge but change it up a little so I could run by my house. I ran 1.5 mile and then stopped at my house.

When I started out again I knew it just wasn't going to be good. By the time I got to mile 4 I was wondering about going back home. My Powerade that I'd left the day before was around mile 5 so I stopped and drank. But by then I was exhausted, it was hot and I wanted to just go home. But I trudged on. I actually had to stop and walk some of it. I was about 2 or 3 blocks from my second Powerade stop when I looked down at my Garmin and realized I hadn't turned it back on when I'd started running again after my first drink stop. I was so mad!! I had changed my route and was hoping my Garmin would help me know when I should be done with my 10 miles.

The only thing that saved me was that I'd reviewed my route on line a ton of times so I knew once I hit my second drink place how many miles I should be. That helped save the route. I have to say the last part of the route (from miles 8-10) weren't as bad as the rest. I felt better finally and actually felt like I could get into a rhythm. Next week is 11 miles. Yipee. Although I think I'll go back to my old route. I changed it up this time and it didn't work at all. That was another thing...most of the first half of the route was this gradual uphill. It was killer!

Now for today...

This is the top of Elk Ridge Drive looking down towards Hwy 189. You can't even see Hwy 189 it's so far down there.

Today I decided I was going to conquer this road. I'd tried running up it more than once. Quite a few times actually in the last couple years. I could never do the whole thing. I've run down it many times. I actually love the downhill, it's perfect for canyon training. But the uphill...just keep slipping through my fingers. Last week I did the last mile of the uphill and was so excited. So I decided this was the day I was going to make it the whole way.

I got up and felt pretty good. The weather was a little cooler than I'd wanted but I just put on a short sleeve anyway. I knew long sleeve would be too hot really quick. I drove to the top of the hill, left my car and started down. It felt great right away. I hadn't brought my Garmin so I didn't know how fast i was going but I knew my time was good.

When I got to the bottom I turned around and started heading right back up. I didn't even stop. Just went straight up. The first mile up was good. I was so glad I hadn't run even faster downhill like I'd thought about doing. I knew I needed every ounce of energy to make it back up. I hit the spot I knew was 1 mile from the top. I was still doing pretty good; tired but good. I had a rhythm going. I knew I was running really slow but I didn't care-I was going to beat this hill.

As I got closer and closer to the top my legs started really hurting. Like at Crossfit when there's 100 squats to do and you try to do them all without stopping but your legs start burning half way through...that was this but I knew I couldn't stop. When I was at the bottom of the last steep portion I was so happy! I knew I could do it from there. I even was chanting it to myself "I can do this. I can do this." :-) And I did.

When I made it to the top I wanted to jump up and down; I wanted to pump my arms and fists into the air like Rocky did when he finally ran up all those stairs in the first Rocky movie. I was so happy! So freakin proud of myself. I'd done it. I'd made my goal. It had taken a few tries but I'd done it. At that point the fact that my 10 miler had been bad didn't matter anymore. I also knew that I could do this race...something I was really doubting after Saturday's run. I know I can now. That's one stinking huge incline! And I did it. Yes er re Bob. :-)

Feeling good again

My eating has been back and forth this week. Some days I'm great and others I eat 1,000 calories over what I should! But my weight is staying the same so I guess that's better than gaining.

Today was my long run. I didn't go to crossfit yesterday. I was afraid since I'd done 8 miles on Monday and 4 on Thursday doing crossfit Wednesday and Friday would make my legs really tired. Turns out they were tired to begin with.

After my terrible run on Monday I've really been thinking about my training. I've been reading up on running and reading through my journal from when I was training last year. It really gave me some insight. One thing I needed to realize is that my long runs aren't for me to get my fastest time. They're for me to get my mileage in. My runs during the week are for speed. LR are for distance. My goal for my long runs is just to finish.

I also need to remember to keep my own pace. Not try to do too much or too fast. Slow and steady. It's worked so far; why change. So today when I was getting ready for my run and walking up to my starting point I thought about that. I'd worn the Garmin mostly for mileage purposes. I wanted to keep track of when I walked so I can log that later. I also wanted to make sure if I got off track or decided to change my route I still went 9 miles.

It was great to have the Garmin actually because it helped me keep my speed down. There were times I started feeling really slow so I'd speed up. Then I'd look down and see I was going 9:30 per mile and think "Can I keep this up?" I knew I couldn't so I'd slow down a little bit.

I also stashed something to drink in the middle of my route this time. Bryce told me he did it because he hates to carry water. I thought I'd give it a try and left a bottle of Powerade hidden at a church 5 miles into my route. It ended up being so wonderful! I left it there after drinking some. It was just too big to carry (I picked it up after). It was funny, about a mile after my drink I had to use the restroom. I'd drank a bunch of water before I started too so that probably didn't help. I looked around and saw that I was coming up on a house being built that had a port a potty in front. I hate those but have used them at races so figured I'd use it now. As much as I hated it I couldn't imagine running 3 more miles having to use the bathroom.

I finished my 9.09 miles in 1 hour 33 minutes. That's about 10:23 a mile. Other than my stop to drink and my stop for the bathroom I ran the whole thing. Up the hills and on the flat parts. All of it. I love that I can do that. And I felt great when I finished. I know not pushing myself was the best thing. I just kept my pace as comfortable as I could and it worked.

I love this route and may have to use it next week for my 10 miler. It has so much to look at when I'm running. I love it. 

It has a canyon where deer stand on the side of the road and look at me as I run by. :-) 

It has nice, new homes in pretty neighborhoods with yards I like to look at to get ideas for our yard. 

It has beautiful fields and mountains and even a working dairy at one point. 

And at the end I run by the Krishna Temple on the hill. 

(I didn't take any of these photos by the way-I borrowed them from Google)

All in all it was a great run. I was happy with everything when I finished. I know next week could be totally different and I could end up hating that run but for now I'm happy with my running again. 3 more runs and then it's race day. I'm getting excited! I'm looking forward to that awesome feeling at the end. Where you know you  did something amazing. Brenna says  "One and done" but we'll see. There's something about finishing and that feeling...I love it. I'm not a fast runner, I'm not a great runner but I do it. I get it done. That's enough for me. 

8 Miles of Hell

I tried a new recipe yesterday and I cooked today. I even have the ingredients for 2 other meals. I'm really together this week with food. I was tired of never having leftovers. And eating out too much. I was starting to feel nasty. And I knew if it was effecting me it was effecting everyone else. I also bought a watermelon and cut it up and tomorrow I'm buying a ton of grapes (they're on sale for about 1/2 price).

The new recipe I made last night was an instant favorite. Which is funny because no one was really happy about me putting cheese tortellini in. No one likes just the cheese ones. But I knew with everything else that was in it, cheese tortellini would be perfect. And it was. Next time I will need to double it though. Everyone had at least 2 helpings (even me darn it) so it went fast. It was SO easy! I love easy recipes. Not that many ingredients and easy. My favorite things.

The recipe I made tonight was one I'd made before. No one seemed to remember it but they all liked it the same. I liked it too. It was another one of those that are easy to through together. This time I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis. I'd put in more noodles so I needed more liquid anyway and green chilis are always a hit in my house. It's a joke when I try out a new recipe that Kim will always say "That was great but there's one thing that would have made that better." And he'll mean green chilis. He says it for everything now; even when it would be terrible!

The rest of the recipes I have are Italian Bake (aka Spaghetti casserole), is a crock pot pork roast recipe and the other is an easy stroganoff recipe in the crock pot too. I love crock pot recipes!
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Today was my long run with Brenna. Eight miles mapped out. Five miles down Suncrest hill-which is pretty much all downhill (a few really steep parts too). Then we were supposed to catch this canal trail that I've heard everyone in North Utah County talking about and run that for 3 miles.

I was prepared but then again I wasn't. I didn't bring water; which I knew I was going to need because we weren't even starting to run until 9:30am and I"m use to starting at 6:30am. I also didn't eat anything carb wise last night. I did that last Sunday and I swear it helped. Some people swear by it but others say it doesn't do anything. I wish I would have eaten a bunch last night-I would have known for sure today.

The main thing that really kicked my butt today was Brenna. She runs so much faster than me! I had my Garmin on and noticed we were running between a 9:00 - 9:30 mile all the way down. That's so much faster than I usually am. I'm usually 9:30 - 10:00. We ended up running the first 5 miles in 46 minutes where as it would have taken me probably 50 at the least. So I was dying by the time we hit 5 miles and waited at the light to cross the street.

The last 3 miles were terrible. I couldn't get any energy. I was hot and tired. I was thirsty and I was beat. I walked and ran and felt bad the whole time because I was holding Brenna back. I kept apologizing and she reminded me that she's run a lot longer than I have and that she hardly ever runs the whole time. But I still felt bad. I told her when we do the run she isn't to stay back with me; just go at her own pace and I'll go at mine.

The last 3 miles ended up taking 34 minutes; which was way better than I thought it would be. It was really a terrible run though. But it felt good to get it done. Plus 8 miles is quite a feet...even if I didn't run the whole thing.

I also need to remember that Brenna is 9 years younger than me. 9 years. That's quite a bit. That does make a difference I'm sure. But still I hated that I had to stop.

I'm looking forward to Saturday morning. It's my next long run. It's 9 miles and I'm doing it around here. I'll also be starting at 6:30am so I won't have to worry about it being too hot. That was such a killer! And the blacktop of the canal trail just made it worse. But that's just me whining again and giving excuses.

I couldn't do it. As much as I'd like to say it was age, or heat, or no water, or running faster than normal, the end result was I couldn't run the whole thing.

But then I look back at last year when I was training and remember how many miles I would go before I had to stop and I know I'm doing better this year. I know I am. I just need to remember that. And remember...I really do like to run. Just some days/runs are worse than others.

Gummy bears

Once again my long run had to be changed from Saturday to Monday. On Saturday I ended up chaperoning Dallin's choir group up to the University of Utah for a choir competition. They were so amazing! I was blown away by how great they sounded. I've listened to their programs before but this time they just sang with so much feeling. I was really glad I was able to go. I've had to say no to helping out all year so I felt like I really needed to make this work. It ended up being a fun and relaxing. I almost read a whole book in one day! That hasn't happened in years!

It was Mother's Day yesterday. All of my kid's told me how much they loved me. It was a nice relaxing day. Even for family dinner at my mom's I only had to bring rolls...how easy is that?! Kim helped Leah find something for me for Mother's Day. It's funny...I don't think he likes how much I talk about running and how much time I spend at the gym or running but for my Mother's Day gift he got me this running shirt. It was one he saw at the fashion show I did last month. It has these titanium dots that help let in air...I'm not quiet sure what it does but he was fascinated and wanted to see if it really worked. So he got me a shirt. He figured I could wear it for my half and be nice and cool. It should come before my next long run on Saturday, so I'll try it out then.

My long run today was amazing! I felt great the whole way. I woke up at 5:50 am to get ready to go. By the time I'd gotten ready and walked up to the starting point it was 6:25 am. I was running into town to my car (that I had left at the gym the night before). The first mile was hard-like it usually is. I try not to gauge anything by the 1st mile. Halfway through the 2nd mile there were a couple hills I wasn't looking forward to. I just put my head down, looked at the ground and plugged on. Before I knew it I was up both hills and headed down. It felt great to be able to make it up those hills without stopping. It kind of gave me this "I can do it" feeling for the rest of my run. I ended up running the whole. All 7 miles! I know I wasn't going very fast up those hills and my first mile felt very slow so I wasn't surprised when my time was an average of 10:25 per mile. I was hoping for better but I was happier about running the whole thing. No stopping at all. Not once during all 7 miles. :-) It was a great feeling.

I tried a new snack while I was running. I really want to stay away from the Gu stuff. It makes my stomach hurt and it costs a lot. I tried taking a small thing of applesauce with me last week. While I loved the taste it didn't give me any pick me up and it was a pain to carry with me. It kept coming out of my pocket the whole time. I finally ate it just to be done. This time I decided to try gummy bears. I've been reading up on alternatives to Gu and that was one (but so was the applesauce). So I put about 20 in a baggie and stuffed them in my pocket with my phone. I brought WAY too many. Ten would have been more than enough. But I have to say they were great! I loved the taste, they did give me a little bit of energy, I didn't feel sick after eating them and they actually helped me take the dry, icky feeling I usually have in my mouth. I can drink water to make it go away but hate carrying water with me (or drinking it constantly).

So gummy bears are my new long run friends. I figured 2-3 every mile after mile 4 is what works. I'm excited to try them again on Saturday for my 8 mile run. Between today's run, the 4 miler I have to do on Thursday for my training plan and the 8 miles I have scheduled for Saturday I'm going to be running quite a bit this week! I'm feeling a lot better about my half this week. I know not to be too happy...next week's run could be terrible. You just never know.

Stuck in a runt

I didn't post last week because I didn't have anything nice to say. I've really been struggling with my eating lately. I feel like I did when I first started loosing weight. I know I'm still making better choices than I did then but I'm still not being as good as I should. I'm taking second helpings more often now and we've eaten out a lot more too lately. I really need to get myself back on track but I'm having such a hard time getting out of this rut.

I weighed myself the other day...I weigh 161.5 lbs. So not cool! I've been over 160 for a couple months now. I know if I was better about what I ate I'd get below 160 pretty quick but that's the problem. I haven't been able to make myself be better about what I eat. I just eat and don't think about it. That's not good. Or I'll start the day out great, get all the way through doing great and then eat a ton right before dinner. All bad habits from before that I never got in check I guess. I need to do something, figure something out soon. It's really depressing me that I can't get my eating under control. It means I'm not in control of me...which I hate!!

I've been using My Fitness Pal lately to write down what I eat instead of Weight Watchers. I just didn't want to pay for WW anymore and wanted to try something different. I like this site and think if I was really good about following it and staying under what they say I could lose weight. I'm not good about sticking to it though; I go over my allotted calories almost every day. I'm getting use to counting calories too instead of figuring out points. It is easier to just count calories but I'm also getting use to counting them for veggies and fruits too. That's something new. I've also been watching my sodium intake (which it also tracks). I go over by a lot every single day. That's something I should probably get better at and then I wouldn't feel so bloated all the time.
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Today was my LR. Well it was supposed to be Saturday but Friday night Kim said he'd like to go running with me Saturday morning. He said he'd like to try running at the high school track and we could take Leah with her new bicycle. I was so excited to have them both come with me so I said sure. I knew I couldn't do 6 miles (what my LR was supposed to be) on a track (that would be 24 laps) so I decided to switch Monday and Saturday. Saturday I did 3.5 miles and today I did 6.

Leah ended up doing really great at the track. She road her bike around probably a mile or more.  She was so red faced and tired when she finished! She had to go to the bathroom about half way through. Kim had walk/run  1.5 miles and was about done so he took Leah around the outside of the school to find an open door. There were cars in the parking lot so he knew he'd be able to get her inside somewhere. I kept running while they went around. When they came back I only had 2 more laps so Kim took Leah up the stairs of the stands to give her something to do while I finished. The last half of my last lap I ran as fast as I could (without falling). It felt amazing while I was doing it but I could only do it for that short time and I wanted to fall on the ground when I was done! But it felt good while I was doing it

Today I set out to do my 6 miles and knew it was going to be bad. Leah was at the gym daycare so I could run around Salem. I figured there wouldn't be as many hills. I mapped something out on my Nook and then started running. The main problem was it was really windy today. And on top of that it was 65 degrees by 9am. So when the wind wasn't in my face pushing against me then the sun was beating down on my face. I had to walk 3 separate times which really ticked me off. But I tried to make them as short as possible. I ended up doing 5.85 miles in 62 minutes-about a 10:30 mile. Last year I would have been happy with my run but this year I was pretty down about it.

As I was running I was thinking about how bad this run was and how great my 5 miler last week felt. And last week's LR was in the rain! And a lot of uphills! But for some reason it was an amazing run. I did the whole thing without stopping with a time of about 9:40 a mile. I felt crazy running in the rain but was so glad I'd done it when I finished. Today when I was running I just wanted to be done. I hated it. I had no energy. Everything bothered me. I felt like I couldn't go another step and I wanted to walk the whole thing. I tried to remind myself that I have bad runs and good runs. Today was a bad one, last time was a good one. Next week may be great or it could be awful. I don't know. But I try to remind myself I'll have a good one again one of these days.

I just keep trying to remind myself where I was last year at this time with running. Or even were I was 2 years ago at this time with running. I know I've made progress; I just need to remember that when I'm struggling to finish 1 straight mile!