No Such Thing as a Wasted Run

This whole week I planned to run my 15 miler this morning. I had it all planned out so that I would cross train on Wednesday, rest on Thursday and knock out those 15 miles on Friday.

Well, as we all know from experience planning doesn’t work that well for me. Something always gets in the way of a perfectly thought out plan. And this week that something has a name, Jillian Michaels. 

That’s right J Michaels and I had a slight rendezvous on Wednesday during my cross training workout. I did her 6 week six pack video and let me tell you this is no joke.

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Although, I do find it strangely amusing that it was not my abs that were sore but my butt! She had me doing lunches and squats like nobody’s business. This was the first time I did squats like that in my life and I don’t plan on ever doing them again.

It was rough. And so was the next day.

So, last night I contemplated moving my long run to Sunday and having today be an easy run/stretch out my sore body day. As I went to bed I was completely set in stone with my decision and ten as I tossed and turned throughout the night it only reinforced to me that this run was just not going to happen. I was certain.

Well, ya know I woke up and did my morning thing: coffee, breakfast and caught up on some blogs. As I’m reading blogs I get more and more inspired to run. The weather looked great and I was only sort of sore still.. I mean how can you not be inspired to get out there when your reading about  Ali’s marathon training and  Meghann’s 40 mile bike ride?!

Anyone? Anyone?

That’s what I thought!

Needless to say, I ran up my stairs, laced up my shoes and was more than ready tackle those 15 miles.

Do you see the excitement??

I’m telling you I was ready for this! I was excited that it was not even 85 degrees outside with what felt like 0% humidity at 8:30 am. This I am not used to and I had to take advantage of it.

So, off I went on my 15 mile 16 mile excursion. My plan was to run a 7.5 mile route out and back which would involve 3 of those miles being on the trails. The first 5 miles went swimmingly. Wonderful actually. I was feelin good. Surprised that my legs felt as good as they did given my previous days exercise. J Michaels has nothin on me.. 

or so I thought..

Once I hit mile 6 I was on the trail and things went from good to bad to worse from there on out.

Some Issues:

1.) Ran out of water: When I’m doing my normal route in my college town I know where all of the water stops are so I can fill up if I need to. Being in Michigan I had no idea where any water was. My Nathan water bottle went to empty too fast too soon. Poor planing on my part. At one point I ran into the country club up the street from my house and asked one of the workers if they could please fill up my water bottle. He looked at me like I had 12 heads and then obliged. I think my sweatiness may have disgusted him but I think he was more than wonderful for filling up my water bottle. Thank you country club water boy! I appreciate you more than you will ever know

2.) Bathrooms: I’m not sure if Michigan runners have all star bladders or what but there was not one single bathroom on the trail. This I also knew from previous experience so again, poor planning on my part, but still this wasn’t fun and I may have had to run into a McDonald’s just to use their bathroom.

3.) Hills: Again, terrible planning on my part. This whole route was full of hills and I was constantly working my way up and down the whole time. It was exhausting and I did not have fun.

Other things that weren’t so fun: I got hungry.. my jam/toast breakfast didn’t hold me over at all. I need Jif Natural in my life asap. My route had way too many cars near it! It was so hard for me to get into a zone and just go with cars constantly speeding passed me.

Oh and I didn’t have my ipod.

All in all my run was long and it was hard and I was so happy when it was over. I don’t even want to post my times because 1.) I didn’t keep track of them and 2.) I don’t want to know them. 

Once I got home I collapsed on the floor talking to my brother. Exasperated, I told him I just finished the longest 16 miles of my life. He just stared at me with a blank look on his face. And it got me thinking. So what if it wasn’t a great run. I can’t expect every long run to be amazing. I can’t expect to come back from every one of my runs and have that “on top of the world” feeling. Granted that would be nice. Ideal even. But I don’t think I would even want that if I could have it that way. It’s these crumby runs, the runs that make us want to stop dead in our tracks, call a cab and sanction ourselves to the couch for a week that make those “on top of the world” runs really worth it.

So, yea I didn’t have my best run today, in fact I think I had my worst run ever. But I did run 16 miles and for that I am pretty stinkin proud.

What did you do that your proud of yourself for? Run a PDR? Finish a race with a PR? Pick yourself up from a terrible run? Let’s hear it! 

There’s no such thing as a wasted run people. 

Happy Friday!

~Sarah

 

Update me!

Hi! How’s it goin? Anything new happening in everyone’s running lives? Have you PRed? PDed? I wouldn’t know any of this because I have been seriously MIA for the last week point 5.

So, please fill me in!! I want to know about it!

Reasoning behind my prolonged absence would involve finishing my summer class, packing up and moving out of my apartment, heading up to Michigan for the week, and squeezing in as much quality family time before I have to head back to school on Saturday.

I’ve been a little busy lately, but haven’t we all?

Speaking of busy remember those goals that I made for myself last months? Well, I went through them and I have to say I did pretty stinkin good.

Let’s review shall we?

1.) Pilates twice a week: Check! Except none this week. I’m on vacation and I’ve been sleeping.. ALOT which is new for me.. and I like it

2.) Ice Bath: I’ve been taking one after each of my long runs. My first one ever was rough but I’ve come to look forward to it during my long runs. There is just something about the “hurts so good” feeling. Addicting I tell you.

Ahh cold, cold, cold!

3.) Delicious Foods: I definitely picked it up in the kitchen category. Dinners of cereal and oats were replaced with yummy pasta dinners, crepes, french toast and pie making. I even learned how to make sweet corn Who am I?

12 miles: French toast

4.) Try Kombucha: Yep, I did this! Maybe it was a mental thing but I was feeling like a slug one afternoon and just a little under the weather. After a few sips of Guava Goddess and I perked right back up. I could tell a change in my energy levels like whoa. I was shocked! I just wish this stuff fit into my college budget. Those bottles are pretty pricey

5.) Search for internships next summer: I did! And I found one in particular that I think fits me really well. The application isn’t even due until February so I’m going to mull over it for awhile. If there is one thing that I’ve learned over the last two years it is not to “jump the gun”. Good things come to those who wait.

6.)Girl Time: Success! Can you say running partner? I love that I was able to fit my girl time into my running time. This will definitely be continued once I get back to school.

So, there ya have it! I know I didn’t accomplish all of my goals from July but what can I say? I am a work in progress

For August I want to continue doing ALL of the above plus I want to blog more! I enjoy being able to write down my daily/weekly ramblings and I love having a place where I can obsess about running with well fellow runners. I’m addicted to running and I admit this and I’m 100% okay with it.

Exciting milage for this week: I have 15 miles to do on Friday! Unknown territory people. Unknown.

Reasons for excitement: That will be a PD for me and once I have successfully dominated those miles I have two little gems that I plan on purchasing. I have been oogling over them forever now so I think 15 miles is an accomplishment worth celebrating.

Side note: Oogling is not technically a word but yes I used it. Think of it as online clothes stalking? Yes, that’s what it means and yes I do that. Quite often actually. 

Update me on your runs! What does your milage look like this week? Whenever you find yourself beyond busy what is the first thing to go? Blogging? Running?  (I sure hope not!)

Happy Hump Day Runners!

~Sarah