Five Weeks In

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. Life has been so busy! Somehow it seems to go by faster every day. How is it less than a month until the Million Mile Run starts? Wasn’t I just in Chicago last weekend? What do you mean Chicago was almost two months ago?!

I wish I could say that it’s flying by so quickly because I’ve been running so much and so quickly. HA. I don’t think I’ve had a solid week of training since I “started” July 7. However, I’ve been able to fake it through most of the earlier weeks. All that running the past couple years has paid off for my current slacking!

That was, until Sunday’s run. I so did not want to do Sunday’s run. 7 miles. I wasn’t sure if I could fake 7 miles. 10K (6.2 miles) felt like it had killed me at the end. Somehow that extra 0.8 seemed like it actually would. I put off the run as long as I could that morning. I had to empty the dishwasher! I had to take care of the cats! I had to clean the shower (really – like that couldn’t wait until later). Eventually I ran out of tasks, so out the door I went. It wasn’t that hot (for August), but it was sunny. Mile 3 felt great.  Mile 4 felt impossible. Mile 5 I swore I was quitting… and then I saw vultures and had to gettheheckoutofthereASAP. At that point might as well go for 7 and get it out of my life.

 

Here are my very uneven splits. Talk about an awful hour and a half!

 

Other things I forget before going on the run:

• Sunscreen. I always forget this. It’s usually not a problem (for me) when I start before sunrise, but starting at 9:30 AM? Stupid.
• Body Glide. Two nasty spots on my back can attest to that.
• How annoying a water belt is – no seriously. Annoying.  So much easier for me to run with Dan and have him hold the water.
• That I’ve lost a little weight, and things fit differently now. In particular, the shoes I wore during the marathon are too wide now. Awkward blisters as a result. Time to send them to pasture.

The run, however, was a reminder that I can’t fake it anymore. I need to start taking training seriously if I want to hit my (super secret) goal time for this half marathon. It’s also time to start putting down the junk food, because it never tastes so good when you’re running after that meal.

Next week I'll be on vacation in Ocean City, NJ. Excited for some great runs down the shore!