Ups and downs

I feel like I have been up and down a lot lately and am really striving for some consistency. Today was my 5th straight day of running and I have no plans to take a day off anytime soon. There are times when the running is just not going like you think it should and it can become such a mental disappointment. My running means a lot to me, so when it is not going well it is tough to handle. I have spent many commutes back and forth to work pondering my lack of motivation when I know I love to run. Sometimes it just does not make sense. To make it even more confusing, it seems that I struggle with motivation when things are going well, then it is compounded when I take a few days off and then have a couple of bad days to boot. I had about a 10 day struggle that I finally broke through on Saturday. I am too embarrassed to share some of those bad days with you but would be happy to share what broke me through it.

As you may have gathered, my long runs are slated for Saturday's and yesterday was to be a shorter long run at 15 miles. My plan was to run a little under 8 min per mile. My record for a long run was a pace of 7:52. I looked down at my watch after the first mile and it read 8:30. Pretty far off the pace, but I was excited. It seems like most of my disappointing runs start with an over ambitious first mile. Not yesterday, I was taking it easy and it felt easy. I have discovered my body needs to get into a rhythm and I will naturally speed up. It truly is a natural and slow progression. It is not anything I need to plan or work on I just start running faster.

I would not know my pace until 4.5 miles in and was hoping to be close to the 8 min at that point making it 36 min. I came to the marker in about 35:30. I could not believe it I had already made up that first 30 second lag and then some, and felt great. It was not pressured, just fun and easy. The next time I would know my pace would be at 9 miles, so with my mind off of that for now I just enjoyed the run.

1:12 would be 8 min and I came in at around 1:09:30. I was now pacing around 7:43. I decided at this point to start pushing it a little. I would know my mile splits from here on out. I did not make it the entire 15 but stopped short at 14. However it still goes in the books as one of my best distance runs ever. The last 5 miles were as follows. 7:15,7:30,7:05,6:52,7:00. So the final 5 mile pace was 7:08. The pace for the entire run was 7:34 and I was really proud. That pace would deliver a marathon time of 3:18 and I am shooting for under 3:30. I still think I have a chance even after those 10 hard days.