The Highs and Lows of Running

Thursday, August 7, 2014

So I’ve been running for 318 days now and I’m always learning new things. One thing I learned early on and still struggle with today are the highs and lows of running. This week is a perfect example of how you never know what type of run you will have until you get out there. 
running lows :(
Monday was a cool day and I was really motivated to go out running. Eric had a soccer game so I was going to go for a "long" run. Well I started out feeling tired. I was very slow and struggle to get to 3 miles before I threw in the towel. I was all dejected because I really thought I’d do 4 miles, easy, and be happy the whole time. I was wrong. I was miserable and just wanted to go home.

RUNNING HIGHS!
So fast forward two days to yesterday. It was hot, humid and we spent the afternoon walking around Valleyfair, riding rides and swimming in the wave pool. I got home, made dinner and fell asleep on the couch watching TV. I woke up around 7pm and felt terrible. I guess eating a big dinner and then immediately sleeping makes your stomach upset. I knew I should go for a run but didn’t want to. Eventually I pulled my shoes on and went out. I told Eric I won’t be out long because I don’t think I’d make 3 miles.

It was AMAZING. This was the best run I have had in a long time. I went 3.75 miles on a hilly course and I could have gone even more miles. I was fast (fairly) and I was feeling great. It was hard to believe 45 minutes before this I was struggling to get off the couch.  

So I guess the moral of the story is when you feel like crap and don’t want to run, you should anyway because you could have the best run of your life.  For comparison sake here are the splits from the two days. 

Bad Run 
My overall pace was 13:24.


GOOD RUN! 
I didn't get to 4 miles so it only shows whole miles on the splits, my overall pace was 12:32. It took me 2:36 less to run 3 miles!












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