Word of the Day

Side note: I don't really like sitcoms. I can only watch a few episodes before I get irritated. Which is too bad because I hear How I Met Your Mother is hilarious. Yet, I could only get through about half of the first season.

Regardless of how I feel about sitcoms, I have to admit Barney's sentiment on being sad versus being awesome fits the bill perfectly for this past weekend's long run.

My attempts at finding someone to run with for my second-ever 14 miler didn't pan out. On Friday night I discovered that much of the reason for me being a big ball of stress was hormone-induced. When I dragged myself out of bed early Saturday morning I had horrible cramps that almost convinced me to stay home on the couch.

But, I didn't. I ate my half of a bagel with peanut butter, drank some water and Gatorade, and geared up. I drove to the bike path and started my run just after 7:30 AM.

I decided at the outset that I would take a short one minute walk break every three miles. This meant that instead of thinking of my run as one long 14 miles, I broke it up into smaller, more manageable 3 mile segments.

The weather was actually a bit chilly when I started out and thankfully it wasn't nearly as humid as it has been. The first few miles felt a little rough but I just kept telling myself I only had to make it to mile 3 before I could rest.

Shortly after mile 2 my music playlist came up with "Nike's My First 10K Training Program". That's a 40 minute podcast that incorporates a warm-up, some speed intervals, and some endurance training all narrated by some guy named Jay Blahnik and set to techno music. Similar to breaking the run into 3 mile chunks, having 40+ minutes of my run narrated by a guy essentially counting off minutes made the run go by much faster. And, I admit, I had to fight not to get sucked into the one minute speed intervals.

Throughout the entire run I was drinking water every mile or two and Gatorade at several of my walk breaks. I ate half a package of Sports Beans at mile 6 and again at mile 9.

Let me tell you, those scheduled walk breaks? Huge mental boost. I don't think I really needed them physically, but just knowing that I had a scheduled one really kept me from walking when it got tough. Don't walk now, I'd think when I started to slow down. You can walk in a few miles. What's a few miles? Nothing, that's what!

When I started to get tired and my feet started to ache I repeated "It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be hard" over and over again in my head. Sometimes I want to quit when things get hard. On Saturday I wasn't going to.

Overall I ran those 14 miles with an average pace of 10:22. Now THAT is awesome.

I really think I turned a corner mentally in my marathon training. And that's pretty awesome, too.

The only not-awesome thing? The blister on the tip of the toe next to my big toe that I discovered when pulling off my socks. Ow! Thankfully it seems to have already callused over so I'm good to go.

So next time you're sad about your running, stop being sad and be awesome instead. Barney says so.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 627 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/07/10 Up/Downhill: [+462/-462] Time: 07:35 AM Difficulty: 3.3 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 14.12 miles Time: 2:26:28 Speed: 5.8 mph Pace: 10' 22 /mi Calories: 1692 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 20 -0' 02 5.8 +0.0 -7 ft 2 10' 07 -0' 15 5.9 +0.1 +13 ft 3 10' 41 +0' 19 5.6 -0.2 +7 ft 4 10' 44 +0' 22 5.6 -0.2 -6 ft 5 10' 15 -0' 07 5.8 +0.1 +6 ft 6 10' 13 -0' 09 5.9 +0.1 +6 ft 7 10' 26 +0' 04 5.8 -0.0 +3 ft 8 10' 00 -0' 22 6.0 +0.2 -6 ft 9 10' 01 -0' 21 6.0 +0.2 0 ft 10 10' 23 +0' 01 5.8 -0.0 -10 ft 11 10' 06 -0' 16 5.9 +0.2 +6 ft 12 9' 56 -0' 26 6.0 +0.3 -7 ft 13 10' 50 +0' 28 5.5 -0.3 -7 ft 14 10' 10 -0' 12 5.9 +0.1 +3 ft end 10' 10 -0' 12 5.9 +0.1 -3 ft Versus average of 10' 22 min/mile

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