There Is Always A Silver Lining

The last few posts I have written have primarily been about how I have been having some pretty crappy runs lately. We all have bad runs and they make us stronger in the long run (pun intended) but boy do they suck. I wanted to do a long run over the weekend but that didn't happen at all.

Saturday I was planning on running ten miles, and then running 4-5 miles on Sunday. I woke up on Saturday really tired from the week. I waited a little for the rain to stop so the trail wouldn't be a sloshy mess. Once I got to the trail I discovered just how windy it really was outside. I started running and felt like I was going backwards. I wasn't into this run mentally and with the combination of that and the wind I decided to bag the run altogether after only one mile. I came home and vowed I was never running again. (I think I am learning how to be dramatic from Ali.)

My dad convinced me to try to go for another run on Sunday at a really slow pace. I love running with my dad because he always keeps my mind off of running but doesn't mind if I don't want to talk. We did four miles really easy and I felt better than most of my other runs have been feeling. I was still pretty bummed about how slow we were going though.

I decided to take Monday off so I could knock out some schoolwork. I had a very productive day and woke up this morning excited to run. I debated what kind of run to do today but ultimately decided on some speedwork since the majority of my runs lately have been done at an easy pace. The plan was to start the run off with an easy mile, followed by 2 x 1 mile hard, and then a cool down mile.

I wanted to base this run off of perceived effort rather than what my Garmin was telling me so I kept it covered for the majority of the run. I started off feeling pretty good, but the first mile almost always feels pretty good. The second and third miles were going to be the real question marks in this run.

I started the second mile off with a small climb that I pushed too hard on. I felt good going up but the rest of the mile I could feel myself slowly dying. I just kept hoping that this did not mean that the rest of the run would follow similar fate. I pushed on during the second mile and was so glad to be done.

The third mile is always my favorite on this particular course because it has a slight gradual downhill. I decided to take the third mile out at a more comfortable pace and then pick it up during the last half mile. I felt great during the whole mile and was absolutely shocked to see that I ran the mile in 7:59. I have never run anything under 8:04 for a whole mile so this was huge for me.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	35:59.6	4.00	8:59
1	9:07.2	1.00	9:08
2	8:19.2	1.00	8:19
3	7:59.2	1.00	7:58
4	10:32.5	1.00	10:31
5	:01.4	0.00	9:41

This run was a reminder for me that things will always get better no matter what, just stick with it. I endured all of those bad runs and something amazing happened as a result. I love speed work and I wish I had incorporated it more into my half marathon training. There's always next time, right?