Thursday, June 7, 2012

Don't stop get it get it

On Tuesday, I woke up at 5:46 a.m. I had to pee. That time happened to be a half- hour before my alarm was set to go off so I could throw on some clothes and get my butt out the door for a good morning workout. I got back into bed, willing myself to fall back asleep but...I just couldn't do it. So I got up. And I ran.

I've been in a little bit of a funk recently. I've been more or less working out pretty regularly (aside from that week when I went to Atlantic City for a wedding followed by a five-day trip to Nebraska over Memorial Day weekend...), but I am just a PLAN kind of person. I like following a plan. I enjoy ticking off the days once I have completed my scheduled workout. I love to see what will be on my plate for the next day and getting excited to kick that workout's booty.

Yes, it would be easy (too easy!) to make myself a plan during this "not training for a marathon" portion of my life, but what can I say, I like to make things difficult for myself. I love a good plan, but I also like deciding what I'll do that day on the spur of the moment, depending on how I am feeling. I think it's good to get a little distance from these PLAN PLAN PLAN times that marathon training often demands, listen to my body, and change things up.

(Speaking of, I'll be starting to train for the Chicago marathon in less than two weeks! And I still don't have a plan. D'oh.)

Anyway. On Tuesday I ran. It was a perfect morning. Perfect weather. An awesome day for a run. I thought I'd do four miles and didn't give half a thought to the pace I might take. I'd just go.

Turned out I was having one of my "speedy" days - also known as a sub-9 pace day. You could even call it an 8:21 overall pace kind of day. An "exceeding my expectations by going faster and longer than I'd planned" day. It was good. It felt good to go fast. I called it my "DON'T STOP GET IT GET IT" run (even though I, uh, did stop a few times for important things like hydration). Not gonna lie, I was pretty dang excited about these numbers:
Wait, what? 8:12?!
It was the sort of confidence-building run that I needed (even with the mini-breaks). Am I 100% ready to leap into marathon training? Uhhh no. But as this photo clearly demonstrates, I am an excellent leaper:
Taken at the Lauritzen Botanical Gardens in Omaha.
Did I miss my calling as a long jumper or what?
So I should probably just suck it up and jump in.

Especially since a summer full of mornings in Central Park like that one would make for a pretty amazing summer, if I do say so myself.
Central Park, I love you.
Marathon training begins in 10 days! Time to make a plan...

3 comments:

  1. If you can wait just a bit longer, I'm doing a talk at Athleta next Sunday (after the Urban Girl Squad running club) on how to create a marathon/half marathon training plan :)

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    1. oooh awesome! i'd love to attend if i can (parents are coming to visit next weekend so we'll see!).

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  2. Haha that jumping picture is awesome, well good luck working out!

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