Since I signed up for the half, my mom and sister are both doing the 5k, and my mom e-mailed me since she's feeling the pressure to run the entire 5k. "I don't like running!" she said. "I like running, then walking, then running."
So, I said, do that! There's not any pressure to run the entire thing. You shouldn't do something that you don't enjoy!
And now, I'm trying to take my own advice.
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Since I signed up for the half marathon next week, I have started to increase mileage throughout the week. My friend that I do track workouts with and I have started increasing our reps and intervals, and I've started to bring up my mileage of runs during the week. I also started increasing the length of my long runs. Two weeks ago, I did about 8, last week was 10, and this week, I thought, maybe I should go for 12!
In retrospect, that's way too fast for me to up my mileage that much, but we'll get there.
I also got an annoying cold this week. I felt it coming on Tuesday, and ended up taking a sick day on Friday to rest. I've continued to work out throughout my cold though - I just don't feel like myself when I don't work out at all! I know I should take it easy. A yelled at me (via text message) when I was going to go to an abs class at my gym on Friday, and told me to rest. (I ended up at the gym later in the day anyway... oops. I mean, it was an easy workout.) And even though I didn't feel 100% yesterdat, I decided to run anyway. And try for 12.
Now that I read that, I'm like, okay. Why did I try and do this??
Anyway, I did.
Mile 1 was hard. My shoulder started cramping a bit, I was already feeling a bit of a side stitch... I should have been a little more in tune with my body. By the time I got out on the trail 5 miles, I desperately wanted to turn back. I would have been okay with 10 or 11 miles. But no, I told myself, keep running!
And then by 7.5 miles in, I was done. Congested and snotty, breathing too heavily, and with tired legs, I kept going back and forth. "Should I walk? No, if I walk, I'm going to keep wanting to walk and not run. You don't walk, ever! But I want to waaaaalk. Can I blow my nose yet?"
Ugh. And I walked.
I ended up doing intervals: run .1, walk .4, and then walk .15, run .35. I don't think I could have finished the 12 miles without doing those intervals. My body was just not having it. And although I know it's amazing to do 12 miles at all, part of me feels guilty, or something, for walking. I've never given up and walked before in a long run. I guess that's what it is - I feel like I gave up. And I feel like the reasons I've given for walking (being sick, increasing mileage too fast, body generally not feeling good) are excuses. I mean, I ran a half marathon PR while getting over a cold, so why not now?
Then, I think about it and try to take my own advice.
The reasons I didn't run the entire 12 miles was not because I didn't have the mental strength to. I have done it before, and I will do it again! It's because physically, I just couldn't. I know now that I need to give myself time to work back up to a half marathon distance, and to forgive myself if I have to walk or go a little slower sometimes. Yes, I had a cold when I ran a half marathon before, but your body responds to each virus or whatever illness differently - and this one just happens to be a little rougher.
For my half/training run next week, I'm going to try wholeheartedly to take my own advice! It's really important for me to keep enjoying my running - I do it because I love it. Not all the time, but I want to keep making sure it's something that brings me happiness :)
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Now on a totally different note, food/eating has been great the past few weeks. I'm really feeling better with cutting out a lot of sugar from my diet - I'm less tired during the day, and I'm loving trying new recipes involving fruits, vegetables, and whole foods in general.
One thing I've been obsessed with recently is Beets. YUM. I've been making them this way, marinated with fresh orange juice and zest, and it is SO good.
I also made a trip to the farmer's market this morning, and went a little crazy with the fruits and veggies. But hey, could be worse! Believe it or not, I bought all of the fruits pictured below! (Well, not all of them... but some of each!)
Happy June (can you believe that?!)! I'm excited for the LAST day of school next week, and Summer to start!
xoxo
S
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