Jumping My First Hurdle

It’s only been a week and i’ve already had my first challenge with one of my resolutions... and i kicked its tail!! Woo!

This past Saturday, Devon and I were suppose to start the training schedule but we chose not to go due to this ridiculous weather that Knoxville has been getting lately. However, if I have learned anything about runners it is that they are more persistent about running than the postal service is about delivering mail! So i knew i had to run even if it wasn’t with the group. I just couldn’t delay the very first run of my training. It would feel like a bad omen for the whole thing so i told myself i had to run 4 miles that day. I just had to.

I haven’t even had my treadmill for a month and I have already found myself thankful for having it repeatedly. On this almost training-disaster day i found myself, once again, thankful for having a treadmill as I was able to complete my run on schedule. BUT even better than that I pushed myself to 5 miles instead of 4!!

I had ran 3.5 miles on Christmas Eve and it almost killed me. I know that for the half-marathon I am going to have to decrease my pace if i ever hope to survive it so I decided to drop my pace from 5.5 to 5.2 for this 4 mile run. Just a minor change but it really made a huge difference. When I run on a treadmill I have to change the display or i find myself just staring at the distance. I was listening to music so I had given myself a goal of X number of songs and decided I would check the distance after the last song finished. When I finally checked the display it was at 3.4. I was feeling pretty good so i upped the speed to 5.5 and decided i would check it again after 3 songs. Just so happens that one of the songs was a really long Death Cab for Cutie song but i told myself 3 songs and would not let myself check it before then. I can be stubborn sometimes. [that might be an understatement] After the retardedly long songs i was at 4.4! I couldn’t stop there and just going .10 more to 4.5 seemed retarded so i set my sights on 5 and as previously stated I can be stubborn when i set a goal for myself so to 5 miles i ran and it was glorious, grand, and unbelievably gratifying! [believe it or not i did not use three “g” words on purpose, haha]. I haven’t ran 5 miles since my Junior year of high school and a year ago I wasn't sure i would ever run it again.

The very next day Devon pushed herself and ran 5 miles too! I don’t think either of us knew we had it in us. I definitely believe in pushing myself but never expected a 1.5 improvement.

I think you will surprise yourself more times than not if you give yourself the opportunity. Go ahead, give it a try. When you are done I’ll be here to tell you “I told you so”. :)

//Stacy//

[Edit: Originally posted on Wordpress]