Prior to training for my half-marathon (which basically started two weeks ago), my typical weekend consisted of sleep, being lazy, casual run, hang time with friends, homemade dinners, and more sleep. Even though I'm training, I manage to get PLENTY of sleep on the weekends. However, before this weekend even began I knew it wouldn't be the usual routine. Mom called me on Monday asking me to go with her to Camp Lejeune to visit my cousin James before he leaves for Afghanistan. "Of course I want to go!" I said. So Mom came up to Raleigh on Friday night and we planned to leave early Saturday morning for Camp Lejeune.
Well according to my half-marathon training program, I had to run 2.5 miles on Saturday. Looked like the only way I was going to be able to fit that in was to wake up early and run. So there I was on a Saturday, listening to my alarm going off at 7am....did I mention it was Saturday? I slowly crept out of bed, put on my running gear, and hit the streets. This was the first time I successfully woke up to run early in the morning. The first mile was pretty rough because I kept leaning to the right side of the sidewalk. I'm thinking this is because I wasn't really awake yet and basically sleeping/running the first mile. However, after that, I felt great! It felt so good to get it out of the way and have the rest of the day to have fun.
Mom and I hit the road to Jacksonville and had a great time chit-chatting in the car. Unfortunately, chit-chatting distracted me from monitoring the speedometer and now I have a speeding ticket and a court date. Oh well! On the bright side - It was so nice to see James and the family before he leaves. We made burgers at his house and then visited downtown Wilmington for the day to walk around. It was so beautiful! Below are some fun pictures from our visit.
James and I :) Thank you for defending our freedom.
We left early Sunday so that I could get back to Chapel Hill/Raleigh at a reasonable time to get my long run in for the week - 5 miles! I was so excited to run this. The best part about my training program is that it steadily works in the miles and gives you mini victories each day. I feel so much stronger every time I run and feel on top of the world to say the least. I planned to run it in Chapel Hill because it's my favorite place to run. It's such a beautiful town and always gives you little challenges throughout with all the hills. I began my run at the bottom of Hillsborough street and MLK. I was so anxious to begin running that I forgot my iPod! I was halfway up the hill and realized I didn't have any encouraging music to keep me going. I was only .5 miles into it. My mind was racing to come up with ideas and topics to think about for the remaining 4.5 miles. However, I quickly realized I was happy just focusing on the run itself and felt great the whole time! Sure from time to time I was thinking "One foot in front of the other...one foot in front of the other..." but in general I felt like I was cruising throughout the whole thing. Below is the route I ran on Sunday. Justin let me borrow his awesome Garmin watch (I want one for my birthday...hint! hint!). This watch is so cool because it shows you your routes, your splits, times and I'm sure some more things that I don't even know about yet!
Here's a picture of my 5 mile route and summary of my run (note: according to my splits, my best pace was 7:36. Hopefully this sounds a little bit better than my average pace, which has clear room for improvement, but it works for me :)
Click here for more details about my splits, pace and route.
Monday was a rest day and it felt pretty weird to come home and not have to do anything. When I was walking to my car Tuesday morning, I knew it wouldn't be a motivating day. It was cloudy and there was a light shower in the morning. It's so easy to be motivated to run when it's in the mid 60s and sunny. Tuesday was the first day I dreaded running. Thankfully, my trusty running partner, Stacey, got me going. We met after work and vented about how bad we didn't want to run in the freezing 40 something degree weather. However, once we hit the road we felt great! It is so much fun and so much easier to run with somebody who is on the same level as you. I felt like I wasn't even really working out. The beginning of the run was pretty scary. We started out on Estes, which doesn't have a legit sidewalk, is dark and you're literally running for your life because you're continuously being blinded by cars and could fall into a hole at any moment - not to mention get hit by a car because they're only 2 feet to the right. Nonetheless we were so happy we ran our 4 miles for the day and actually ended up running 4.27!
Below is the route we ran Tuesday night (sorry it's kind of small!):
Today is my crosstraining day so Elisabeth, Stacey and I are attending a 60 minute RealCycle class at HEAT Studios. I'm so excited! And a little nervous that I'm going to be hurting during tomorrow's 4 mile run. HEAT Studios looks so intense and has some highly trained athletes as instructors. There is no membership and you only pay by the session. Currently, they have a free week of cycling classes so I signed up for this Wednesday and next Wednesday evening. I'm excited to check the place out and hopefully will sign up for some other strength training classes in the future. They have one class called Ballet Burn that looks like so much fun, but yet again, intense. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!
Smile of the Day:
How great I felt after running the 4 miles last night that I didn't want to do originally. It's funny how you can dread working out, but once you get going, it feels so good! Can anybody else relate to this feeling?
Quote:
"Running has an uncanny ability to mellow the soul, to take the edge of hard feelings, and put things back into health perspective." - Dean Karnazes
Songs on my Pandora today that are worthy of honorable mention:
"Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by IZ
"To Make You Feel My Love" by Mick McAuley & Winifred Horan
"Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy
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