Perserverance

I did not want to run today.  Yesterday was an abnormally busy day at church and I found myself washing dishes at 10pm which was not ideal.  Mike didn't even make it home until close to 11pm because he got called in for an emergency at the hospital.  I was tired when I went to bed and I was tired when I got up.  But, I packed my bag with my running gear anyways and headed to base for my normal Monday routine...tap class for Abby at 10:00am, preschool/daycare for Abby at 11:30am, run and lift weights 11:30-1:30pm, pick up kids at school 2:00pm.  On my way to the gym to change I tried to find motivation.  I even called Mike just for some words of encouragement but he was extremely busy so we weren't able to talk.  I changed into my running clothes without thinking about how unmotivated I was to do my tempo run.  I stood outside looking at my previous tempo runs the last couple of weeks on my watch, trying to find some sort of competitive spirit in me to get going.  Sometimes it is just plain hard to run by myself and to have to dig deep for that motivation to run and to run hard.  The only plan I had was to do my 6 mile run with a 4 mile tempo which is what I had been doing the last couple of weeks.  I warmed up in my first mile and then picked it up for my first tempo mile...7:02 min/mile.  It was then that I realized that I had not considered the very reason why I needed to take this run seriously.  I was running a 10K in less then 3 weeks and there simply was no time to slack off.  So, for the next 3 miles I pushed it hard.  My miles were 6:49, 6:47, and 6:42.  Even with a head wind on the last mile I was still able to run my last tempo mile faster than the others.  My times look fast but in order to ever meet my goal of breaking 40 minutes in the 10K I need to be running my tempo runs sub 6:30 min/mile.  I still have some work ahead of me before I get to that level.  For now, I am really proud of myself for perservering in the face of extreme temptation to not give it my best.  It definitely helps to have a race to motivate me to run hard.  Here is how I have improved over the last couple of weeks in my tempo run training.


APRIL 2, 2012

Total Miles - 7

Tempo Miles - 5
7:17
7:22
7:21
7:17
7:14
7:27


APRIL 9, 2012

Total Miles - 6

Tempo Miles - 4
7:04
7:04
7:04
7:08


APRIL 16, 2012

Total Miles - 6

Tempo Miles - 4
7:02
6:49
6:47
6:42