The Last 2 Runs

Well, I slacked a little and didn't write about Thursday's run so this will be a combination. (We were all bad and skipped Wednesday's run).

There have been some awesome developments as of late and the best one is signing on with a running coach! She will do individualized plans for each one of us (25 people total) and she is also a yoga instructor so we get that added into the price as well! YAY! Leah and I got to meet her on Thursday night for her running group that is running every trail in The Woodlands. Picture this...6:30 pm, 85ish% humidity, and 101 F. There were two routes (we opted for the shorter 2.25 miles) and it was on a path that was fairly familiar to us. Let me just say that I probably only ran a total of 17 minutes and I'm being generous here. It was so damn hot and miserable and my ankle started to hurt a little while that same foot fell asleep (AGAIN!). It took me sooo long to do this and we were not allowed stopwatches or Garmins on the run either. Leah was a trooper and ran about 36 min while I just walked it off. There was a cute party and drawing afterwards and I went home and crashed.

Now, we are at Saturday. Today felt OK outside and there seemed to be more groups that met at 6am than usual. We decided to do a 5 min walk and then do our 30 min run. We got to run up and down the stupid bridge on Woodlands Pkwy 2x which was...swell. This run actually was pretty good. All three of us generally stayed pretty quiet (I cracked the occasional joke which I found takes too much energy) and at around the same pace. On the turn around I was tempted to walk, but I am now discerning between real pain and fatigue and just being tired/negative. Even though I've heard it before, I have now experienced that distance running is a total mental game. I have to keep positive thoughts in my head and just keep breathing (just keep swimming...). I have also found that our time goes by really fast because we are paying more attention to our breathing, body, and scenery than anything else. I like the mental clarity I feel during and after a run. Let's see if I take that into Monday's run.