The universe must of read my post yesterday and known how frustrated I was because today's run went far better than expected. I got to the park I always run at and was sitting in my car trying to convince myself to get out of the the car it was coldish, windy, my legs were still sore, and I just knew this run was going to suck. I texted my old roommate/running buddy Alex and told her I couldn't convince myself to get out of the car. She texted me back and said just get out of the car and get it done, your going to feel like shit if you don't. So I opened the door and off I went. By the time I got to oh .2 miles I was ready to quit, I was already breathing hard, my legs were stiff and sore and I was over the run already. I actually mapped my run out BEFORE I ran today instead of just wondering along so I didn't check the distances as I ran. the whole first mile was pretty crappy and about .75 miles into I almost had myself convinced just to loop around the lake and head back to the car. I made myself just keep going and I just keep telling myself I had to do it.
Before today I had never really ran outside when it was very windy I would just run inside instead. It wasn't super windy, but enough that it was a pain to run into. While I certainly would rather not run in the wind I think it helped me get through my run today. I would be running into the wind and it would be really hard and it would suck, and then I would turn and have the wind to my back and then it would fell easy and I would feel good and then I'd be back to running into the wind, This whole cycle kept repeating and I think if it hadn't the run would of just felt hard and crappy the whole way. I never thought I would be thankful for wind, but today I was!
I just kept telling myself if I could get to the half way point I would be ok. That if I could make it that far I knew I would finish the run. For some reason between mile 1 and 2 is ALWAYS the hardest and the slowest, and today was no exception. It was especially rough though because through part of it I had to run through a dirt parking lot, and because of all the snow melting there were puddles everywhere. Which to most people isn't a big deal, but I HATE WET SOCKS! Seriously like with a passion. I think it's part of the reason I like flip flops so much. I have never in my entirely life crossed a creek/stream big puddle with shoes on because I can't stand having wet socks/shoes. So needless to say when I ran through the first puddle (there was no way around it the whole parking lot was pretty much a puddle) I almost quit right there. It took some SERIOUS will power to keep going, but I managed to power through it and over come a fear. I still won't voluntarily be going through any amount of water in socks and shoes though.
SERIOUSLY wet socks and shoes I was not a happy camper!
The bottom of my pants also became really wet and I got worried they would get super heavy and fall off... luckily that didn't happen! (yes I realize this is a crazy fear I told you it's pretty much a phobia!)
Once I about 2.25 miles (I'm guessing) The run began to feel pretty good. I don't think running will ever feel "easy" for me, but I started to not feel like I was dying and like I could pick up the pace. I picked up the pace a little bit, but was scared to pick it up too much because I didn't want to get almost to the end and not be able to finish. I think it's definitely a mental thing though because the very first run I did outside was my fastest run and I haven't had one that fast since. I definitely need to find a way to work on it, I'm just not sure how yet.
Once I got headed back towards my car and I was pretty sure I was in my last mile I went to check my running app to make sure that I was on track to hit four miles and that I didn't have to take any detours. I opened the app and had a mini freak out because it wasn't on it's normal screen. I wasn't sure if it was recording, but I didn't want to hit any buttons and screw it up if it was so I just kept on running and figured I would run what I had planned and hopefully it would be long enough. The last half mile my foot REALLY began to hurt. It was pretty much begging me to stop, but I knew that walking would hurt just as much and I had come this far so there was no way I was going to quit this close. My PT was snowed in at my last physical therapy appt. on Thursday, so I just had the aid there to walk me through my exercises. I tried to tell him that my hips were rotated ( I can't rotate to the left AT ALL), and he just barely looked at them and went oh no I think your fine. This is the same thing he told me Tuesday, and then the PT came over and said nooo her hips are way rotated can't you tell? I was pretty much ready to find this guy and smack him by the end of my run because my foot was screaming. I didn't put any comfy shoes in the car so I wore my sneakers home and when I got home and took them off this is what I found (If you don't like feet stop reading!)
OWWWWWYYYYY That think freaking hurts! The big blister is the original one that sent me to the doctor. It was pretty much healed and now I have a new blister on top of it which is UBER painful! I have been gimping around since I got home because it hurts to bend my foot. There is a new blister below it, and then another beside it more towards the top of my foot which is hard to see. So pretty much I'm ready to hunt down the guy who said my hips were fine and throat punch him!
I don't know how I am going to fix my hips, but I HAVE to figure something out, because ain't nobody got time for blisters! Anyways enough about feet the break down of my run is (my app did end up working it just ended up on a weird screen) :
Total Distance - 4.16 miles!
Total time - 46:10 seconds (my last .16 took me 1:35 seconds so that means it took me 44:35 to run 4 miles which is 1:20 faster than last week!)
Average pace 5.4 mph still quite a bit slower than where I want to be but at least faster than last week
mile 1 - 11:22 at an average of 5.3 mph (I just figured out I can look at my half mile splits and I won't bore you with all of those, but my first .5 was my slowest half mile of the whole run at 5.1 mph taking 5:53)
Mile 2 - 10:57 at 5.5 mph (so while it felt hard I was wrong it wasn't my slowest!)
Mile 3 - 11:23 at 5.3 mph ( this one actually ended up being my slowest mile, but I think I was also running into the wind most of it from 2.0 to 2.5 miles was my second slowest half mile split at 5:52 so almost as slow as my first half mile!)
Mile 4 - 10:51 at 5.5 mph (even though my foot was screaming it was still my fastest mile)
The last .16 of a mile - 1:35 at 6.0 ( I could see my car so I was hauling! :-) )
So it was still slow and probably ugly, but I survived and it was faster than last week so I'm pretty happy with it. I am going to go run tomorrow MORNING and then go to a yoga class. I'm going to make sure I get my workouts in this week. No more skipping! My tree trunk legs and monster hips can't afford to have me skipping any more workouts!
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