Saturday, March 29, 2008

8 miles. Harder than 7 miles.

This morning it really hit home that doing these long runs is 90% mental, 10% physical. After an exhilarating 7 mile run last Saturday, I was expecting 8 to be a breeze. Not so. The weather has been crappy all week long, it even snowed twice - including yesterday - and all week I've wanted to stay inside and eat nothing but carbs. What's up with that? Almost every woman I know is complaining they've put on weight the past month. Are we biologically programmed to eat nonstop and be lazy this time of year? I've really got to reel it in!

Anyway, I skipped a few workouts this week, so I was expecting today to be bad. And my inner voice was secretly hoping it'd be raining this morning so I could blow off this run, too. But I woke up at 7 and everything looked fine, so I begrudgingly got my stuff together and headed back down to Madrona to run along Lake Washington Blvd.

At around mile 4, I ran into my friend Wacarra who was just finishing up her own training run with her Healthy Goddess running group. We're like little satellites orbiting around each other, as we always seem to end up running at the same time at the same place, every Saturday! At mile 5, I started to hurt all over. I kept telling myself - only a 5k left! Somewhere around mile 6 I stopped feeling my butt. At mile 7 I was confused - had I really run this far last weekend?! But somehow I made it one more mile. Actually, a bit past 8 miles I think....

My knees are sore and my back is aching, and now I'm curled up on my couch under a blanket watching On Demand. The pain is but a distant memory :) Next weekend, another 8-miler, then 9, then 10 - then the half-marathon. Five weeks to go, the countdown is on...

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