Waiting for the sunshine

I learned something about running this last week...it gets very boring when you have to run inside.  Running for 5 miles on a treadmill or on an indoor track gets really old really fast.  Thankfully, when you run with company it's not as bad.  At least then you have someone to talk to.  Forecast for this weekend is looking pretty good for running outside though...woohoo!

I struggled this last week with one day's run.  It was very discouraging to me to have to quit before I finished my distance, but my body couldn't take it any more.  I was doing my hard run of the week.  I discovered if I walk for a quarter mile, jog a quarter mile, then run hard for a quarter mile, I'm pushing myself really hard without killing myself.  I did that two weeks ago and got through 3.75 miles no problem.  Last week I tried the same thing and couldn't finish.  I don't know what it was, but my body just felt off and I couldn't do more than 2.8something miles.  Part of it might have been that I was running at least an hour later in the day than I was used to..without eating anything extra.  I was also running on a different treadmill and I'm pretty sure I hadn't been drinking as much water that week.  But...whatever the reason, my body would not let me finish.  Frustrating for sure.

Thankfully my friend and I had already made plans to run the next day.  I got up and ran 5 miles with her.  That felt so good for me to know that I can do it.  Having an off day was a little discouraging, but I had to get up and try again the next day because I had made a commitment with my friend.  She keeps telling me that I'm encouraging her in the running, but I don't think she realizes how much of an encouragement she is to me.  As I've alluded to in previous posts...I struggle with self-discipline.  It's very easy for me to become a quitter just because I don't want to work that hard.  She (and the other women in my group) are encouraging me to not be a quitter.  They are giving me a reason to keep running.  The best part about it is I'm starting to like running and seeing HUGE benefits from it (namely in roller derby...my endurance is awesome because of all this extra endurance training!).

So...thank you ladies...thank you Micki for not letting me get lazy.  Let's hope Saturday is 40s and sunny like they forecast so we can conquer our 6 miles outside.