Woah, ugly.

This, my friends, is a Ford Fairmont, the car I sometimes drove and eventually abandoned at the tender age of 16. Its also the car that would stall on random hills and that had plaid/vinyl interior and fuzzy orange carpet.  The one that we had was a color called "shammy metallic", otherwise known as sparkly orange-ish, and the source of a lot of eye rolls and laughs from friends. Ford must have been ahead of his time, because I've seen a similar color lately on some of their newer models. I must have been over the childhood trauma of driving a vehicle called, The Pumpkin Mobile, because I've found myself seriously considering the orange for my next vehicle, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to hear the grief I'll get from my dad, after all of the grief I gave him about driving this monstrosity back in the day.

One of my favorites of my favorite

Captured with an old school flip phone. Without *gasp* internet access.  How DID we survive?

Unfortunately, I didn't find a leprechaun

I can't remember if/when I've ever seen a more perfect rainbow. Call me cheesy, but I feel like there was a divine artist at work here.

5 miles. Done and done.

Saturday's run was a long one, the longest that I've had to do in awhile.  As usual, I didn't WANT to do it, but I did, but I didn't, but I did (or else I wouldn't have signed up for the 1/4 marathon in the first place).  I carefully planned how the day would go, in the back of my mind, giving myself permission to skip it, but also threatening to kick my own ass if I did.  My relationship with myself is complicated.  In the end, I got it done and here's why:

1. I gave myself permission to walk.  Did I want to walk?  No.  But did I decide that it was ok if I did? Yes.  And I did end up walking on/off for the last 1 1/2 miles or so.  I'm happy to report that the side stitch stayed away and that I just started to tire out and dehydrate a bit.  All in all, I'm happy with how it went though.  I ran for almost 3 1/2 miles, not fast, but not walking.
2. My husband told me to enjoy it.  What a revelation.  This builds upon the whole idea of "this was my big idea" and takes it to another level.  Go out there and have fun.  That's what I did.  I enjoyed my neighborhood, the sunshine and the little boy who so graciously moved his tricycle off of the sidewalk for me to pass by.
3. I said that I was going to run.  I cancelled a pre-concert lunch date with friends so that I had time to get 5 miles in.  How dumb would I have felt if I would have gotten to the concert and said "I didn't do it" when asked how my five miles was?  Pretty dumb.  So instead of humiliation, I got a couple of high fives.
4. Sunday was a rest day.  All that was standing between me and more than 24 hours without thinking about running was 5 little miles.  Those five little miles would give my metabolism the boost that it needed to let me have fun at a tailgate, without completely throwing my progress down the drain.
5. 13.  Why is this important?  Its the number of miles that I was supposed to finish last week, and that 5 miles was the last chunk of mileage.  It also let me have my first continual highlighted line across my training plan, with no X's to mark out missed miles.

3 miles of therapy

Thursday's scheduled run turned into a walk, which turned into a 3-4 mile therapy session.  Over the years (does that make us sound old?), we have found that walking does the trick when it comes to difficult decisions or sticky situations.  We've broken up and gotten back together on a walk (that one was a doozie), we decided that we'd get a puppy and we've decided that we wanted to buy, and then build a house.  Obviously, these are pretty big decisions, but we've also worked on some other issues and "kinks", if you will.  For some reason, we're so much better at figuring things out while we walk and Thursday was no different.

We started out in our neighborhood, mutt in tow.  The conversation flowed and before we knew it, we were almost at the end of our normal route.  Since we weren't done talking yet, we crossed the street and added more miles and time, which did the trick.  The combination of walking and talking felt more exhausting than if we had just run the scheduled run, but in such a liberating way.

The details of what we talked about really aren't important (well, to anyone else but us).  What's important is that we know what to do when the going gets tough; we get going, talk it out and don't come home until its done, decided or resolved.

3 miles, heavy legs

On Tuesday, I completed three miles.  I didn't run the whole thing, but I didn't walk the whole thing either, so I'll consider it a win or a +, if you will.  Monday evening, I did two miles, followed by a complete ass kicking by my trainer, Rebecca.  The workout was so intense that about halfway through, I started to dread Tuesday, thinking that I probably wouldn't be able to sit down on the toilet without extreme pain.  When Tuesday morning rolled around, I was kind of proud of myself when I got out of bed, made my way to the bathroom and then sat down, without any grunting or pain.  The day continued and my legs continued to work...until I had to go run that night.  Once I started going, it felt like my legs were weighted down.  It just wasn't happening.  But, I went anyway and at the end, I had "wogged" three more miles.  While I was going, I was thinking about:

1. I hope that I don't get struck by lightening.  There were some pretty gnarly clouds rolling in and a few times, I saw sideways lightening.  I thought to myself - "seriously!? you're not this hard core" but then I told myself to "shut up and finish".
2. Even though you're not feeling "it" tonight, just get through it.  That's what I did.  It wasn't pretty, but it was done.  My heart rate was up and I was sweating, so even though I didn't satisfy my mind and do three miles without walking, I gave my body what it needed.
3. In the overall scheme of your day, this is a blip.  I had to tell myself multiple times that this "wog" only felt like it was going on FOREVER, when in fact it was less than 45 minutes of my day, a blip on the radar, if you will.

Moral of the story:  For me, any run is better than no run.  I'll get to where I want to go eventually - even if I have to walk part of the way.

2 Miles

Dear side stitch,

I'm dedicating this post to you, since you obviously are craving attention.  During last night's run, I was thinking about how good I was feeling despite the humidity and my lack of motivation.  I know that's a contradiction, but its my prerogative.  My breathing was steady, my music was motivating and traffic was cooperating.  I was cruising along at a less than 13'00" pace yet again.  However, you decided mess with my mind around mile 1.25 or so.   Instead of giving in to your cries for attention, I took deep breaths and willed you to go away.  I was glad that you took the hint because I was in no mood to run/walk last night, after your appearance on Friday evening.  Now that I've remembered how to make you go away, I want you to know that you are no longer welcome to join me on my runs.  I don't have time to entertain you and you really screw up my breathing.  So if you DO try to pop in on my three miles tonight, I'm going to take deep breaths until you get the hint and go back to wherever you came from.  

Peace out,

Me