Freaking Freezing!

Last night, I headed out to the buddy run like I always do. Unfortunately for me, nobody showed up. Got stood up. It happens. Whatever. I kinda figured nobody would show up since it was about 35 degrees. Since I stuffed myself with a powerbar and was already out there, I decided to run on my own. I ran with two top layers (long sleeve under armour and TNT shirt), my running shorts, and a nice TNT fleece ear rap

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful the ear fleece thing was. My whole head never once felt cold at all. Even with that I did acknowledge how cold it was since I could clearly see my exhales in front of me. I ended up running 13:53 out and somehow ran my ass off cuz I came back 12:24. I figured I did about 2.5 miles. Not too shabby considering it was so freaking cold. The best part was I felt great all through the run. Almost another runners high. Didn't quite get there, but was pretty darn satisfied.

Haven't Missed a Beat

After such a great run on Tuesday, I was really looking forward to a run on Saturday. Since the Coach's Run in Mill Valley was a scratch for our team, Olivia invited me to join her for her 10 miler. My confidence was sky high and without hesitation, I insisted on doing the entire 10 miles. I had not run more than a 5 mile distance since I did the Nike Half Marathon on Oct. 22. So it was going to be somewhat of a challenge, but I had this strong belief that I could do it.

Come Saturday morning, I met up with Olivia and we both were freezing. It was 37 degrees at 8:00 am and I had to believe it stayed 37 at least through the first 5 miles. My hands were frozen and reinforced the point to pick up some cheap running gloves. We did a 2.5 out (northbound), 2.5 back run and then another 2.5 out (southbound), 2.5 back run. The first 5 miles went well. By mile 7, I could feel my hamstrings tightening. I attempted to stretch them out, but was not very successful. I definitely did not want to stop running during the remaining 3 miles, otherwise I would have stiffened up. The legs were slightly tiring; however, I finished! 10 miles never felt so great. It's nice to know all the hard work, i've put in this past year has not gone to waste. A week ago, I would have said doing a half marathon would be out of the question. I was struggling to do even 2 miles. Now...it seems like nothing is impossible (well except for maybe a full marathon).

It's such a good feeling.....

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive.
It's such a happy feeling: You're growing inside.
And when you wake up ready to say,
"I think I'll make a snappy new day."
- Mr. Rogers


After a horrible day at work, I headed out to the buddy run tonight. I ran about 43 minutes and felt great all the way. I paced myself pretty well and enjoyed every bit of the run. It was a nice 59 degrees, perfect running weather. I felt like I could have gone another 10 miles. Tonight's run helped me brush off everything from work and helped put things back into perspective. God, I love running. I know quite a different tune from Saturday. A much chipper tune!

Brief Update

I wish my blogs were more exciting, but nothing has been happening. I'm happy to report, i'm still running about 2 miles, three times a week. It's nothing glamorous like training for a marathon, but it keeps me somewhat going. It's sad that I need an event to get my ass going. Having no event to train for is tough and makes it very easy to slack off. The really sad part is this past Saturday, I did an on my own run and I was having a tough time doing even 2 miles. Perhaps i'm not pacing well and just really wanted to finish the run as soon as possible. I think it's because I treated the run as a "chore" and not an enjoyable activity (like it should be). Just a warning that my future blog entries may be a little disappointing. My head is really not in the game and i'm hoping to find a pick-me up...very soon.