Why I Ran Today

After running consistently now for 2 years, you'd think it gets easier to get out the door to run. No. It's still the same. This is was me today, having a hard time to get out that door to run. It didn't help that today was a holiday - MLK, Jr., so I hit that annoying snooze button for 30 minutes. Yes, 30 minutes. And after 30 minutes, I just turned it off! I was so tired!

When I FINALLY got my butt out of bed, it still took an hour for me to head out the door. I felt awful for taking so long, especially since The Hubs was planning to do his run today too. After some oatmeal and a banana, I stepped out into the cold.

I had 8 miles to do and you know, having 2 big slices of pizza the night before is not bad fuel for a run. Usually, I feel so sluggish in the first 2 miles. On this run, it only took me half a mile to warm up and then my legs just wanted to GO. I always run by feel, so I let my legs pace me, and I felt so light, "fast," and so free! Is it the pizza? Or my Nike Free 3.0s?? Or is it because my BP is now normal, not too low? Or all the above?

Found that "Peace" necklace on my run today

 

Runs like this remind me why I love to run. It's that feeling when you can just keep going, your body feels good, and you feel so much a part of what surrounds you. This is why I ran today:

I ran to make peace with myself. I am back on BP meds (Sigh), and after refusing to let genetics decide my fate, I let it go and went back to taking meds. I took half the dosage today which I think helped me feel less woozy and weak. I will know more when I see my doc this Friday.

I ran for a 3 yo girl with pneumonia, complications from the flu. One side of her body is paralyzed and I just cannot imagine what her mother, her family is going through right now. So I ran for her.

I ran to celebrate my RUNniversary. Four years ago today, after watching President Obama first inauguration, I decided to start running outside. It was the first day I took a step out the front door to run. It was cold, snow was on the ground, and I had no clue how to dress for a run outside. I ran with my winter coat! I remember running down my street and feeling like my lungs were going to explode (I sprinted, having no clue how to warm up of course). Up until that day, I was running on the treadmill, and it's only been a week since I started. It took me 2 years after that day to run consistently.

It is incredible to look back to where you started. I still have no idea where I'm heading, but all I knew at that moment during my run, is that this run feels good. I am alive, and I am grateful for this gift of running.

Of course, the day is not complete without closing it with my challenges: #plankaday and #wallsit with The Hubs.

 

Janathon Day 21

Moon Joggers Mileage To Date: 76

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Running Towards Free

Fave kicks - Nike 3.0 v.3

You know it's "love-at-first-run" when you cannot wait to run in them again. That's what my Nike Free 3.0 v.3's are for me, my go-to-shoe for runs up to 10 miles. I have yet to try them for distances beyond 10 miles. I'm no expert in minimalist shoes like my Nike 3.0s, but I can tell you that I love feeling closer to the ground, how very flexible the soles are, and how much "faster" and free I feel running in them.
But this is not a shoe review. No. Just a post about a run that I couldn't wait to do, in my favorite running shoes on a slightly warmer day. I had 4 miles on my training calendar, and I think my expectations were high starting out on this run until I started moving. I. Felt. So. Sluggish. My first mile split says it all - 12:08 min./mile. (Daily Mile run details HERE). It was one of those runs where you just want to get it over with, but I knew I had to hang in there, so I plodded along feeling betrayed by my "fast," free shoes.

At Mile 1 - waiting to feel "free"

Am I feeling burned out already? From life? From training? I can't be! No! So I push on, stopping to take a quick pic, deciding to take it easy, just to get the miles in. (But how I long to be free).

To keep my mind off of this sluggish run, I thought about how nice it would be to run to a gorgeous view. While you can't get much scenery in suburbia, I remembered a little trail that made you forget you live in a culdesac world. So I ran to that, hoping to find my free. I got distracted by what I thought at first was a pretty cool looking thing on the ground, only to realize that what I was looking at was the remains of a doe? A deer? And where its eyes used to be. Ugh. I don't know why I thought it was something else, but then this IS suburbia!

After leaving that awful discovery, I turned and ran to where the little trail was, but stopped at the top of the hill. I was alone, and while I longed to lose myself down in that little trail....to feel the wide open-ness of the field...and trace the meandering little trail, so I can forget the monotony of my suburban life, I didn't feel safe....

...which was more disappointing than feeling sluggish at the start of my run. I've run that little trail before, but only with friends, and I wasn't about to chance it, running down there tucked below the hill, completely out of sight.

So I stopped to just look out at that little trail with my back towards the cookie cutter landscape....imagining that I was somewhere else for a few minutes. It is so peaceful down there on that little trail. Sigh.

When I was ready, I turned around to run back to my cookie-cutter world, to my routine, to my boys with fighting, angry, whining words, and ran home happy towards free.

(Imagine my surprise after I uploaded my run to Garmin Connect and saw that I got a negative split!)

Janathon Day 10

Moon Joggers Mileage To Date: 29

Plank A Day: 2:11.8 

Wall Sit: 1:33.2

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