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I woke up to pouring rain on Saturday, and headed over to a friend’s house before 7:45 to hang out for a bit before heading out around 11 am for my long run. Due to the rain, along with this friend’s schedule, we had decided to hang out early, leaving me to do my long run late morning. My nutrition is usually on point before runs, but leaving at 11 am left me a bit confused about how to fuel.
I knew when I headed out that I was a little too hungry, and I would come to regret that… It was about 51 with 80% humidity, which my body is in no way used to. Definitely a beautiful morning, but one that my body hasn’t adjusted to after lots of runs in pretty chilly temperatures.
I’ll be honest and say that I just wasn’t feeling it as I left the house, but was surprised at how good the first two miles felt. Besides the thickness in the air, I felt good.
By mile 3, the humidity was catching up to me and my legs were feeling a bit heavy. They weren’t in pain at all, but felt a bit difficult to turn over as fast as I would like. I think some of that was due to my legs feeling different since I was wearing the zensah compression sleeves instead of my BioSkin calf sleeves, which I’ve worn for almost 3 years now.
From miles 3-6.25, I broke my run into 3 minute intervals. I typically do a 3:1 run:walk ratio, but mentally I broke it down to just having run three minutes. All I did was focus on the three minutes that I had in front of me instead of focusing on the run as a whole. I tried to focus on “running the minute that you’re in”, as that’s all I could really control anyways.
My stomach started growling by mile 5 (I didn’t have any fuel with me), and about a mile earlier I was deeply regretting not bringing any water or nuun with me. I guess I’ve gotten too used to the colder weather, and forgot to adjust since it was warmer! Lesson learned…
Faster than I was expecting the run was over, and I was thankful. It was a tough run, but in totally different ways than last week’s run. My body felt good after these six miles, unlike last week when I was sore for a few days after my 5 miler. I’m pretty happy about it. Even though the run was tough, it was great to feel that I was actually back in training again!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s one thing you say to yourself to motivate yourself on runs? What makes you feel like you’re officially “in training”?
It’s funny you ask what makes you feel like you are “in training” because I have a half marathon in less than a month and I still do not feel like I’m training for it AT ALL. I think, for me, running outside is what makes me feel like I’m in training as the treadmill just doesn’t feel like true running to me. I need to get my long runs up to double digits to feel like I’m truly training for a distance race which is a product of training for a full marathon last year – all of my “long runs” were double digits so having an 8 mile long run planned doesn’t feel like a “real” long run, if that makes any sense.
I’m glad you powered through your run and felt good after it was done – isn’t that a great feeling?! My first outdoor run last week was tough but I kept reminding myself that I was outside and not on the treadmill and that was all the motivation I needed. It wound up being a really awesome 4 miles.
The treadmill can definitely make an impact on how we feel about our training! Yes- it’s definitely a huge feeling to power through 🙂
Awesome that you are back in training. I just always try to focus on things ahead. Run to the tree, okay now to the mailbox, bit by bit.
I like picking out landmarks. It definitely helps make it manageable!
I tell myself I am strong and more than capable. I feel like I’m in training when I’m marathon training. 🙂
I love that self talk! 🙂