Eight weeks from today, I will be setting out to accomplish a goal that I honestly never even dreamed I would (or could) set for myself. I'm very, very excited. My training has been going great - on March 10th I ran the Runnin of the Green 7k with my friend Valerie, and in spite of the cold weather I had an absolutely wonderful time!! I had a really strong week March 11th - 17th, then last week I got knocked out by some weird viral thing. It made me break out in cold sores and my body felt like someone beat me up with a bag of hammers! I never got a cough or runny nose or anything like that; just a low grade fever and feeling wiped out and run down. I did my workout on Tuesday, started feeling like crap; then decided to take the rest of the week off. Yesterday I was supposed to run the Spring Fever 10K, but it was postponed due to snow. I'm actually kind of glad, I still wasn't feeling 100% yesterday so I wasn't feeling very optimistic about running. I am feeling better, I think by Tuesday I'll be ready to jump back into training. I'm actually a little bit ahead of schedule on the training as far as the long runs go; so I'll be working on getting a little bit faster on my Tue/Thur 5K runs. I don't feel compelled to try to run my first half as fast as I can, but I definitely don't want to be trotting along super slow either. I have gotten my per mile average down under 11 minutes, and that makes me happy. I know it's just a matter of conditioning.
I am accomplishing milestone after milestone; doing that thing I love best about taking on a new challenge - completing each new 'first'. Last Saturday was my first 10 mile run. I didn't even feel like running that day! My mood was low, the weather was crap; and I was feeling very unmotivated. But I told myself to run at least 5 miles. Just five miles. There is a stretch of trail that I can see off to the north every day as I drive home from work, and I've been having a compulsion to go explore it. So I did. The first 3 miles were brutal, as usual: but then I hit that wonderful place where all of the creaky aches melt away, my breathing becomes steady and I suddenly feel this sense of peace. The trail is nice, winding all through the neighborhoods; and once I found my groove I just kept on going. Next thing I knew, I had run 10 miles and it felt amazing! I finally understand why people run, and I have really missed it this week. (I know it may seem trivial to some, but I ran TEN MILES... I remember when I couldn't even run ONE!!)
Recently I've made some new running friends who really inspire me. The hard part is that some of them have been running for a long time; so they go far and they go fast. I feel like the annoying little sister who wants so badly to tag along with the big kids but can't even remotely keep up!! This is good though, this drives me to continue to improve. I really don't mind running solo during a group run because I still feel involved; that I'm a part of the I-got-out-of-bed-at-the-ass-crack-of-dawn-to-run-rather-than-sleep-in-on-a-Saturday crowd, and that alone makes me beam with pride. I like being a part of that club, and I hope that one day soon I'll be able to keep up with the big kids.
I've decided that I want to run at least 2 more half marathons this year. I also want to do 2-3 skate races. I'm on the fence about what do to in in June; I have a full skate marathon that I would like to do again, (Apostle Islands) on June 15th, or I may do the Slacker Half (running) marathon on June 22... One thing is for certain; the running events are far more abundant and definitely cheaper; while Apostle is a blast, it is definitely not a cheap weekend! I had so much fun last year though, it may be too hard for me to resist... I am for sure registered for the Minnesota Half Marathon/5K in August: I registered for the duathlon. (Skate the half then run the 5K.) I am also definitely skating the Northshore marathon in September- I just can't miss that one. It's the best race of the season!! If I could skate all three of those as well as run 3 half marathons; I would be very happy. I am definitely addicted to racing; there is just something really gratifying about crossing a finish line - and feeling all of the hard work paying off! It's not about winning, it's about finishing!
It should be interesting to see how I switch gears - going from full time running to full time skating. I do miss skating though, and I do believe that the conditioning I have gained from running will make it a lot easier for me to jump back into the groove of skating - which is the main reason I took up running in the first place!! I'm thinking that what I will probably do is after the half in May I'll switch to skating and do my skate races with the first one in June and the last one in September; then switch back over to running to do the Rock n Roll half in October, and another one in there somewhere... Either way, the year still feels wide open, life is amazing; and I'm just happy to be participating!
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