No Excuses, No Regrets

I've been out of sorts this week. I haven't felt like doing my running--or much of anything for that matter. Fortunately, I have the sense to stay motivated and do it. This training cycle is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done and I know that if I slack of now, it'll affect my training later and I'll regret it. I've decided that this is the time for no excuses and no regrets. I can always find some sort of excuse to not run and to not do my training. I'm good at find excuses. But this time there will be no excuses. It will get done.

Yesterday's run could have been filled with excuses to not get it done. I had 13 miles on the schedule. I was going to meet one friend for the second half of the run but she got sick and couldn't. I could have decided not to run, but didn't. Another friend offered to meet me for the second half. I had a route planned to meet her around the 7.5 mile mark and she would do the last 5-6 with me. Apparently I didn't know my route well enough and turned the wrong way about 1 1/4 before I was to meet her. I obviously didn't know this, but kept going.  When I hit 8 miles and didn't see our meeting place, I knew something was wrong but didn't know what I did. When I saw one of the street signs, I knew for sure that I took a wrong turn, but wasn't sure where. I knew I had two options--1. to turn down the cross street and head for home. It would have made it a little further than 13 miles, but I knew where I was, or 2. I could keep going down the trail and I would end up at a mall. I chose option 2 since it was an hour after I was supposed to meet her and I knew she would try to contact Hubby. I knew I could get access to a phone somewhere in the mall.

I got to the mall at 10.5 miles, used the restroom and then made the call to Hubby. Turns out he was already in the car on his way to find me. I had turned the wrong way onto the trail. I still had 2.5 miles to go and just ran around the mall for the last 2.5 miles.

So you see, I could have had many excuses to stop and walk or find a phone to just have someone pick me up. After expecting to have someone to run with, then not meeting up with that person running alone was pretty disappointing. Normally I would have struggled, but yesterday I pushed myself, kept my chin up and used my mantra: no excuses, no regrets.

Building the Miles

Well, training has been going fairly well. I have good runs and bad runs but I still consider myself getting back into it all. I can't believe how quickly I've increased the miles. I'll be up to 12 miles this weekend. I can't believe how quickly it's gone.

I got myself a new pair of shoes, since my Kinvaras will have over 300 miles by marathon time. I got the new  Cortanas, but they are a 1/2 size bigger than what I usually wear. They seemed okay when I tried them on but when I attempted my 10 miler in them 2 weeks ago, my feet hurt so bad in them. I stopped running at 8 1/2 miles because it was cold and I turned into the wind (and I had been battling a cold). My plan was to just walk to catch my breath and start up again, but my feet hurt so bad in them that I couldn't start up again. After that, I went back to my Kinvaras since I know those are good.

This last weekend was an interesting run. It was a step down week for me, so I only had 7 miles on the schedule.Saturday was a free run with the Roadrunners group so Hubby and I went there. It was two 3.5 mile loops but it was about 18 degrees and had snowed all night and was going to continue to snow all day. It was a beautiful run, but definitely one that needed Yak Trax. I ran the first 3.5 miles with a friend, then was on my own for the second half. I made it and didn't get bored or overthink things too much. That's what gets me in trouble, thinking about how far I still have to go... I actually overdressed and had to take a layer off halfway through the run! Go figure, for 18 degrees out :)

My short runs are getting longer--2 3-milers during the week and a 6 miler. I'm beginning to really enjoy the runs though. We'll see what happens this weekend on the 12 miler. Hopefully I'll be able to handle it.