An Epiphany and Believing in Yourself

This week starts my 6th week of training for the half marathon in November. At times I think I'm not progressing but when I look back I can see that I've made huge improvements. The end of my first week I was had an average pace of 14:55 per mile, now I'm running about 13:47 per mile! My goal for running the half marathon is between a 12:00 and 12:30 pace, I'm pretty confident I can keep that pace. My treadmill runs are a bit faster than that but I'm much faster on the treadmill. I actually have two different PR times, one for treadmill and one for my outside runs. If only I could run as fast outside!! Oh well, I'll get there!

This last weekend I ran my first 10K distance, actually I did 6.5 miles. The coolest part was that I ran in the rain, and not just a sprinkle but full blown downpour. I had considered just running on the treadmill but I had good friend point out that running in the rain was good for the soul, he was so right! It was probably the most enjoyable run I've done so far. I PR'd my fastest outside mile as well as my 5K. While I was out I had an epiphany, I was turning into a hardcore runner! Whenever I passed runners in the rain I would think, "Man, they're dedicated and hardcore." It didn't occur to me that I had turned into one. I recently read an article about 10 things that runners needed to quit. One of them was to stop thinking negatively and stop minimizing your running efforts. Just because I do run/walk intervals doesn't mean I'm not a runner. I can keep up with those that run the whole time but I can almost guarantee that I'm feeling better at the end of my run! (That's one of the biggest reasons I went with the Jeff Galloway training method.) I also had the first opportunity to use a Gu gel. It's basically a little pack of heaven that replenishes the electrolytes lost due to sweating. I was a bit nervous to try them, I had heard mixed reviews. I'm a huge chocoholic so that's the first flavor I tried, it was like manna from heaven half way through my run. I'm sure the boost from it was just as mentally invigorating as it was physically, it was tasty!

This morning I completed my training run and I have to admit, it was rough. I did 30 intervals at alternating speeds of 5.7 and 6.0 mph, I guess you could say that I was speed training. Anyways, the first half was okay but the second half I really had to push myself. The whole time I kept telling myself that I could keep going and that I was going to PR my treadmill mile and my 5k time. When it was all said and done, I didn't do either of those. In fact, I didn't go nearly as far as I thought I had. At first I was really disappointed in myself. But when I actually thought about it and looked at my times, I was spot on for the average pace I want to run in the half marathon. I just need to keep working and doing my speed training so that I can improve my street running times.

What did I learn today? Progress is progress! Don't diminish the the work I've done because it may not have been as much as I'd hoped. I got out there and I finished my training run!!

On that note, I saw this cute cartoon and couldn't resist posting it. Disney World recently released that the kids runs and the 5K will be "Frozen" themed. I think that announcement made every little kid want to run in the kids race!