Stronger

Did I really just do that?!?

I just ran for 30 minutes straight.

As most of you know, I always do run/walk intervals for my long runs and races(and basically every time I run.) I also haven't ran in a few weeks(since right after the Tower of Terror 10 miler) so I decided to go for a quick run tonight. I haven't been feeling well so I wasn't planning on doing too much. I have been very pleased with my new method of running for 10 minutes straight then walking 4-5 minutes at the beginning of a run to help warm up quicker and have a better run. Because I have done this with all of my runs lately, I knew I could run 10 minutes even though it has been about a month since I have done long intervals. I want to get back into doing longer intervals on my short runs to help my shorter intervals during races and long runs. So tonight, I set the intervals on my Garmin to 10 minutes running, 4 minutes walking.

We headed over to the PT track near our neighborhood to avoid the cloud of cigarette smoke I would have to run through if I stayed in the neighborhood. The track is a 0.4 mile loop so 5 laps makes 2 miles. As I was running my first 10 minutes, I started to think about how it would be close to a full mile so I might as well run the extra half lap to do a mile straight. As I approached the end of the mile I thought, "Why not just do 3 laps?" As I closed in on the end of three laps, I decided to try to run two miles straight. When I told Mac I was hoping to do two miles, he responded that he thought I was trying to test myself and see if I could run for 30 minutes straight. I had thought about it but I thought there was no way I could do it. I decided to see how I felt at the end of two miles and decide then.

I hadn't done an interval longer than 12 minutes since May which was the last(and first) time I ran 30 minutes straight. I had been working back up to longer intervals before Tower of Terror but I stopped after 12 minutes because life got in the way and I was frustrated that the Garmin won't let you set an interval longer than 10 minutes. So I was using the watch for GPS and my phone for  intervals on any run with an interval longer than 10 minutes.

When I started running tonight, I knew I could do a mile without walking. As I ran, I felt like I could do two miles but I wasn't sure about a full 30 minutes. As I finished up the second mile, I saw that I was just over 24 minutes. If I wanted to run 30 minutes, I had to find 6 more minutes in me somewhere. Like I said earlier, I haven't been feeling well this week thanks to sinus pressure and pain. It hadn't bothered me too bad during the run but I was starting to feel a slight headache. With five minutes to go, I finally thought that maybe I could really do it. It was going to take a lot but if I kept pushing, I could make it through. At the 26 minute mark, I was starting to really feel it in my legs. I had not slowed down much in the last half of the run and I was afraid that if I eased up then, I would stop. Three minutes left, I knew I could do it, I just had to focus on one foot in front of the other. Two minutes to go, it hit me that I was actually going to finish the 30 minutes. With only one minute left, I turned the corner and set my sights on the other end of the stretch. I knew I should be able to cover it in a minute. Just as I was trying to find the power to keep pushing, "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson came on Pandora.

For any of you that ran the 2012 Princess, you know that this was the mile 7 song. That day was the first time I had really listened to it and though the verses may not have much to do with running, the chorus is the perfect anthem to help you push through. As she sang, "footsteps even lighter" I fought back a few tears and picked up my pace. I only had 30 seconds left to reach a goal that at the beginning on the night felt impossible. As she sang, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," I started to cry and I stopped my Garmin because I had done it. I ran for 30 minutes straight. I looked down and saw that I had gone just over 2.5 miles. I was ecstatic and  a little over come with emotion.

Part of me felt like I could have kept going. That maybe I could have done 3 miles, but part of me was spent. I walked a little while and then ran the last quarter of a mile to our house. When I got to our front door, I knew 3 miles was a challenge for another day. I felt good but I also felt tired. I came in, uploaded my run and fixed the map because it always has me running across a roof or two at some point. When everything was right, I had ran 2.56 miles in 30 minutes. I had an average pace of 11:43minute/mile. I decided to look up the last time I ran 30 minutes in May. I ran just over two miles with an average pace of 14:43minute/mile. I took 3 minutes off of my pace. That is HUGE for that short of a period of time.

It's crazy how much stronger I have become in the last year. I keep having new experiences all the time. I have had to buy new jeans a few times this year because I have dropped a size. Even though the scale is still around the same place, I have continued to see my body change. I look forward to opportunities to get dressed up and show off the progress I have made. I am realizing that even though I haven't stuck to my eating plan as closely as I should the last few weeks, I'm still doing OK. As I start getting back into a regular running schedule, I know the food will start to fall back into place as I begin to fuel my body for these runs. I'm excited about the prospect of shopping for a ball gown for the next military ball we have in December. I am finally realizing wholeheartedly that I can do this and that I am doing this and that I will succeed. No, the time line may not have been what I wanted or hoped but it is all coming together and I feel like I am unstoppable.


I think it is also kind of fitting that this is my 200th post. Seems like a pretty good line up of milestones. 

Confidence dashed

I am feeling a little better now that I have gotten my first post race run in but before that, I was feeling like I really am crazy for the things I am planning to do. Tower of Terror did not go as planned and it made it really hard to look ahead to all of the races on my calendar and feel optimistic. Fortunately, I am pretty sure I know what went wrong with the race and I should be able to avoid it in the future. I will post a full race recap soon.

I think my biggest problem was it was a night race. I know that seems silly since I always run at night but when I know I have a long run, I try to go easy earlier in the day. That is a little harder to do when you are at Disney and you want to enjoy it during the short time you are there. Even though I didn't do too much on Saturday, I spent a lot of time standing and I knew the more I stood, the less prepared my feet would be for that night. We ended up waiting almost an hour for a ferry which meant standing and then we tried to hit Test track quickly before leaving(since we had a fast pass) but it broke down and we were stuck standing in  line waiting on them to let us out. Plus all of the walking between the places we went meant I spent more time on my feet Saturday than I should. At least with a morning race, I spend 4-5 hours at least in bed before the race so my feet can rest. With Tower of Terror, I may have gotten a chance to sit for about an hour before heading to the race and then I sat in the corral as much as I could but it still wasn't enough. By about mile five of the race, my feet were done and the last half of the course was very painful.

My time ended up being about 20 minutes slower than the ten mile run Mac and I did here before I left. It really just disappointed and frustrated me. I knew I had trained better. I knew I had worked out my nutrition and I was better prepared for this race. But I did some stupid things during the day that made my race that night suffer. It was hard to face.

Last night I finally sucked it up and went out for my first run since being home. I wasn't sure how far I was going to go but it ended up being about 4 1/2 miles. My legs could have gone further but I hadn't eaten enough and I got really hungry so we headed home. It felt good to get it out of the way. It wasn't a great run since the humidity was around 100%(it rained off and on) but the temps weren't too high so it was bearable just not comfortable. We have a cold front coming through this week so I am looking forward to how it will feel next weekend when we tackle 11 miles. I have to keep moving forward because I still have a half marathon to run in 5 weeks and several more to run after that.