Oh Deer

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That beautiful creature up there? Yeah, she was the best part of my Saturday run.

After the half-marathon I decided that I need to start trying to do my long runs in the morning instead of the afternoon. I've got to train my body to do that kind of work at that time of day. Since I'm not a morning person in the least this is a rather difficult task.

But, I forged ahead. I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 AM and was on the bike path by 7:30 AM. My plan? Run 8 miles.

I think that was the hardest 8 miles I've ever run. Somewhere around mile 2.3 I had to stop and walk. I stopped. I stood there. I walked. I tried to decide if I should turn around now or just forge ahead to mile 3 and see how I felt at that point. It didn't help that at that moment I was passed by a long, lean woman runner in compression (aka bike) shorts and a sports bra with her fancy hydration belt. I literally came thisclose to tears.

But, I gave myself a pep talk. You are base-building, I said. These miles should be nice and slow and easy. Who cares if you're running at a 10:30 or even an 11:00 minute per mile pace? Who cares if you need to stop and walk a little bit? Just get the miles in.

So, I decided to run til the 3 mile mark and re-evaluate. At 3 I decided I could make it to 4. So, in the end, I did all 8 miles. I saw that lovely deer pictured above and another one a little later. It started raining around the mile 5 marker and I lifted my face to the sky, threw my arms in the air, and let the warm rain cool me off. However, I'll tell you, there's nothing like running in the rain and worrying about your electronic gear (I was paranoid after hearing about Lindsay's issues with her stuff after the rain during her marathon) to get you moving. That mile I ran in the rain? Fastest of the day.

I need to keep telling myself, though, that it's not about speed right now. I admit, I tend to pick one really good run and compare all other against it. Right now, I compare everything to this run. And if I don't hit those times? I'm disappointed. But, I also know that not every run can be a good one and not every run needs to be a fast one. And, although my times from yesterday aren't something I'm super proud of, I still covered 8 miles. And I should be proud of that.

So, in the interest of full disclosure, here's my stats from yesterday. Remember, I still haven't turned the AutoPause function on my Garmin back on so these times do include some waiting for traffic and intersections. But, mostly, they just include the walking that I did.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 621 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 04/25/09 Up/Downhill: [+219/-219] Time: 07:29 AM Difficulty: 2.9 / 5.0   Weather: Light Rain and Breezy   70 F temp; 68% humidity   70 F heat index; winds SW 22 G 35 Performance Distance: 8.01 miles Time: 1:26:30 Speed: 5.6 mph Pace: 10' 48 /mi Calories: 722 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 14 -0' 34 5.9 +0.3 -4 ft 2 10' 31 -0' 17 5.7 +0.1 +3 ft 3 11' 32 +0' 44 5.2 -0.4 +9 ft 4 9' 50 -0' 58 6.1 +0.5 -7 ft 5 12' 20 +1' 32 4.9 -0.7 +7 ft 6 9' 10 -1' 38 6.5 +1.0 -7 ft 7 12' 17 +1' 29 4.9 -0.7 -10 ft 8 9' 37 -1' 11 6.2 +0.7 +7 ft end 10' 00 -0' 48 6.0 +0.4 0 ft Versus average of 10' 48 min/mile

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