BACK ON THE RUN

After ignoring my blog, I have found that my running has been sucking. It's been hot, I've been running with my teammates which makes me feel the need to race and doesn't give me a chance to go at my pace, I've had to schedule my runs around work, I've been having to run in the mornings when I'd rather run at night, my routes aren't that great, I've haven't been doing what I'm supposed to on my xc training schedule, and on and on. So as I said, my running has been sucking. At the beginning of my run today, which began at 8:00 and was a much cooler 79 degrees, I figured that my problem was that I needed to fall in love with running again. It shouldn't feel like every run is forced, it should feel good. I needed a magical run, something to show me that I have made progress and that I do love running. I found one of those runs today. I can actually post about how running is awesome, which is different than what I have been feeling.

I finished supper around 7:11 and I usually try to wait an hour afterwards before running but I needed to get my miles in before it got dark. I drove to a mile long trail that has marks every .1 along the loop. It's gravel and pretty flat. There's a lot of trees and enough people to let me race someone but without feeling crowded. I do a lot of my summer training along this mile long loop and the surrounding neighborhoods. It gives me a comfortable feeling because I know I don't have to race anyone but can if I want to.

My first mile felt slow. I took Saturday off so my legs were kind of tight. I was going to do 6 or 7 miles if I could fit them in before darkness but I wasn't sure if my legs would let me. I had been running about 8 minute miles on my runs so I was pretty surprised when I passed my first mile in 7:36. I thought I had started out too fast like I have before but it didn't even feel like I was going that fast. I didn't try to speed up and passed the second mile in 15:11 or 15:18.

The third mile was the hardest. I could feel myself slowing down and kept telling myself not to let me feel that. If I didn't let myself know I was getting slower than I wouldn't. I was getting slower though, and was at 22:55 at the third mile.

I realized that I could break 45 minutes, the unreachable number. So I took off. The fourth mile was at 30:15, the fifth at 37:30, and the sixth at 44:36. I broke 45 minutes and didn't feel that exhausted when I was done. This run meant that my miles have been doing something for me.

I can't get myself motivated to run miles in the heat for xc season. This run taught me that maybe I should just run for now. I don't have to train for something that seems far off, I can train for what I can do now. Each run should be me trying to do my best so I can improve now and not later. The hills I've been doing will improve me later but I have to let myself show the improvement sometimes. I have to love running in order to improve. And after this run, I realized that I do.

FOUR MILES

On my first real high school track practice I ran 4 miles. Having not trained over the winter, I had also not run over 2 miles consecutively. That run was terrible. I had to walk some of the way and I couldn't believe we still had a week of practice left. I thought of that as a long run but it turns out it wasn't. It took me over 40 minutes and I was exhausted at the end. I had no idea how I was ever going to get through track.

On Thursday I ran 4 miles. I set a new PR in 30:34 even though it felt like I was struggling. My legs didn't feel too bad though with only 16 miles ran so far this week. Besides the PR, there was one more thing that made this run special. The lead runner was me. My faster teammate wasn't there but I would've been able to keep up with her like I have most of the week. With or without her though, I was in the front. I've been in the front before but never by myself. I was running at a faster pace then everybody else on my team. This time, I was the one everyone tried to catch. This fact was not lost on me, as evident by the random smiles on my face. I felt like I had truly made it. I was flying in front. I was the leader of the run.

I didn't realize until I was stretching afterwards that I had run the same exact route when I first started. My running has changed so much since then, and not only in my endurance. I now look the part of a runner and I am good friends with many of my teammates. I now understand that these miles are neccessary for me to succeed. I love running more than ever. I have run miles and miles since that first practice and have worked hard to get where I am now. It hasn't been easy but on Thursday, when I was in the front, I knew it was all worth it.

ACHES

I finished up my 33.7 mile week with a short 2.8 mile run this morning. I saw another runner which was pretty unusual so I raced them for awhile. My run was nice because it was still a little warm out at 31 degrees but.....my leg hurts. Not my whole leg, just my thigh or my quad as it should be called. It's been bugging me for a few days but now it's a steady ache. This has happened to me before and strangely enough the only time it's hurt since then is when it rains heavily. It's kind of hard to describe, but it's like an internal ache or a dull pain deep in the center of my leg. It doesn't really hurt, it just aches. No matter how much research I do, I can't seem to figure out what it is. It doesn't seem to be getting better but I need it to. It's frustrating because it's not enough to take a day off but it's enough to make runs miserable. It's bothering me though and it won't stop aching.