Rough start and rough performance, but I got it done.

I had my alarm set for 6 and woke at 5:59 to go to the bathroom.  When I looked at the clock and realized I only had one more precious minute of sleep, I uttered an involuntary, “no,” which woke Jon.  He knew exactly what I was saying ‘no’ to and he began his version of a motivational speech which he first developed when I was training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk.  On days that I didn’t want to get up and walk, he’d say something like, “How do you think those breast cancer women feel?  You think they feel like having cancer today, or chemotherapy today?  You get your butt up and walk, Missie!” Of course, he was half-asleep today and hadn’t practiced his speech in many many months, so it came out more like, “How do you think those ladies with breasts feel?”  Hmm.  Not quite what he meant, I’m sure, but I got the general idea.  I also decided that they probably felt just like me, like going back to bed, and I set the alarm for an hour ahead, thinking I may still be able to do the run in the morning, and remembering that there was a pretty big hole in the middle of my schedule today if I wasn’t able to do it in the morning.

I got up an hour later, checked my schedule, and figured I could just get it done if I left right away, so I just went about the business of gathering my gear and getting on the road.  Fortunately, I’ve done this enough that some of this is getting to be automatic.

Today’s run was an ‘easy’ run, which, at this point in my training schedule, just means ‘go faster than walking and log your miles.’  Turns out, that’s about what I did.  My overall average was 5.3 mph and I have to say that did surprise me a little bit.  I thought I was going much faster than that, but I guess I did get stopped a few times for traffic lights, and instead of walking or jogging while I waited, I mostly just came to a stop.  Actually, looking at my GPS data, there are only 3 clear stops along the way.  It looks more like I was just going that slow.  Darn, I hate when it’s my fault!

However, it was really rough getting going, but after a while, the miles melted away and I’m glad I got back on the training schedule.  I’m not looking forward to the rest of this week and the next, but the Marathon is coming and I am looking forward to that.  Being over.  Yeah, I guess I’m not really looking forward to the ‘running 26 miles’ part of the event, I’m looking more towards the ‘just having run 26 miles part of the event’ that is followed by rest and eating and celebration and partying and recognition and a concert.  Too bad we have to run 26 miles first!