November 29, 2013

Pace run

I was completely dreading my run this morning, which was kind of ridiculous--it was only three miles! But it was a half-marathon pace run, and since I started my new training schedule this week, that meant a pace of 8:15/mi. That's not grueling, but it's not exactly comfortable!

I was procrastinating all morning, and then my sister called. She laughed when I told her how much I was dreading it, and said, "Just think of it this way--you'll be done in 25 minutes!" That made me think of how if I'd just gone out to run when I first started thinking of it, I would've been done hours beforehand ;)

I finally got dressed to go run outside. The weather was great this morning--no wind at all, and 25 degrees, with sun. The sun is my enemy in the summer, but when it's cold during the winter, the sun feels pretty nice. I tried not to feel pressure to hit my goal pace (I have 18 weeks to train!), but when I set a particular goal, especially while running, I always put pressure on myself to hit it.

I started out way too fast, but caught myself just a quarter-mile in, and slowed it down. I really should make my goal pace 8:25, because then I will likely hit 8:15. By setting it at 8:15, I was hitting 8:05. To reach my half-marathon goal of 1:49:59, I would need a pace of 8:24, so I'd like to keep it between 8:15-8:20 during training, for a little wiggle room.

Anyway, my legs were feeling better today (yesterday, they were pretty sore from the intervals I did on Wednesday). I was breathing a little hard, but the pace wasn't torturous. I finished with a pace of 8:05 for the three miles, and felt good.


After today's run, I don't think I'll dread the half-marathon pace runs anymore. I was just nervous today because it was the first of many, and I wasn't sure how that pace was going to feel. Actually, today made me a little more confident that I might *actually* reach my goal in the spring! It's a very lofty goal, and I knew that when I set it. But I remember thinking that "Enter a 5K race and RUN it" was a lofty goal that was nearly impossible! ;)

I had plans of just sitting at home all day, because I didn't want to have to deal with crowds of shoppers; but I'd forgotten that I had to weigh in at Weight Watchers for November. Jerry had to weigh in, also, so we went together this afternoon. My weight was fine, so I'm good to go for another month. I know I keep saying this, but I'd like to pick a meeting and start going weekly again. It helps to know that I have to be accountable to someone each week.

After we did our weigh-in, we were right by a bunch of stores; and since we had nothing better to do, we decided to go into a couple of stores to see if there were any good sales. I went into PetSmart to get another box of those cushions that the cats like (there are two in a box, and the four cats have been fighting over them), so now they each have one.

Kohl's, which is a couple of doors down from PetSmart, looked insanely crowded; I'm glad we didn't go in there! We stopped at Wal-Mart and got a couple of Christmas gifts for the kids. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart wasn't too crowded.

After dinner this evening, the kids were fighting and my nerves were just shot. I had a strong urge to binge. I've realized over the past few years that when the kids are fighting and driving me crazy, the urge to binge eat gets really strong. I recognize what's going on, but sometimes, it's hard to stop. Today, though, I managed to resist. Today is Day 18 of a binge-free streak, and I'd hate to ruin that now! It's a lot easier to resist on Day 18 than it is on Day 1 or 2, so I just kept reminding myself of that.

When this post goes live, I'll be at a birthday party for Renee. Her husband is throwing her a surprise party for her 40th! I'm just hoping that I can resist diving head-first into birthday cake ;)

3 comments:

  1. Kohls was nuts - took an hour to get thru the line. They suckered us in with awesome coupons!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WTG on 18 days! Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Petsmart had litter for 50% off! Those huge tidy cat buckets. I got 3!

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive