First of all, I need to start by saying happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there. 🙂 I called my mom today, make sure you call yours!!
Today was the first day of the year where it was warm enough for me to sit outside in shorts and enjoy the sunshine. Seriously, I think I probably have Seasonal Affective Disorder (you know, where you get a bit depressed during the winter months from lack of sunshine and Vitamin D), so as soon as the sun starts shining, I feel like a new person!! Bring on summer!
I ran 4 miles today. It felt pretty smooth overall. I ran it in 37:47, so an average pace that was just a little faster than 9:30. I felt super good until I was just past the 3 mile mark, when I started to feel a bit tired and my legs were starting to fatigue. When this starts to happen, I always get super discouraged. “How the hell do I think I can run 13.1 miles if I get tired running 4??! It’s only been 30 minutes, and my legs are already tired? How am I ever going to be able to run for 2 hours??!” I was running at about a 9:15 pace at that point, so I eased up just a little bit and finished my last mile comfortably. I just slowed down ever so slightly, and I felt like I could have run all day… Then for the last couple of minutes, I brought the pace back up to under 9:00/mile. I always try to push it for the last half to quarter mile or so. When I finished, I felt completely silly for ever feeling discouraged or doubting myself, but I know I’ve got to work on strategies for dealing with those discouraging thoughts as I start to run longer distances.
What do you do to keep going when you feel like you can’t run any farther?
What are your favorite running mantras?
icurunner 