Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed your weekend! Mine was pretty great, mostly because I was lazy and did absolutely nothing all day on Saturday! It felt so good after my busy week! On Sunday I had another fun long run scheduled. I’m tweaking Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 training plan a bit to fit my schedule and to give myself a taper before race day, so Sunday was an 8 mile day. Lovely. After last week’s hot mess run, I was extremely nervous about going out for this long run. Seriously, I was SCARED. I’d never run 8 miles before, and I wasn’t feeling so confident after what happened during last weekend’s 7 miler. Plus, my thighs and butt were hurting from doing a little kickboxing workout on Saturday (probably not the best cross training idea), so I was trying every excuse in the book to get out of this thing. But my husband ultimately got me when he said “If you skip this, are you going to be mad later?” The answer was obviously yes, so I put on my running shoes (without YakTrax! Yay!) and drove out to Forbidden Drive. I made my husband come with me after what happened last weekend, so he went for a little hike while I ran.
Andrew hiked to the statue of Chief Tedyuscung at the top of the gorge! A brave hike in all that mud!
Some differences from last weekend’s run:
- No snow, and only minimal ice left on the trail
- 45 degrees instead of 13 degrees! Huuuuge difference!
- Mud everywhere, so I had to give up trying to keep my shoes pretty and clean
- I ate healthier meals for breakfast and lunch, and focused more on fueling my body before my run
- I carried a water bottle with me to keep me hydrated
- I tried to keep my minute per mile pace around 12:30 because I’m hoping that my race pace will be around 11:00 – 11:30. I’m not great at regulating my pace but I did pretty well!
- Forbidden Drive is completely in the woods, meaning that when no one else is on a particular section of the trail I can zone out and feel like I’m somewhere remote and not in Roxborough 🙂
- I had to use my Dirty Girl Mud Run skills during this race because there was a massive tree down on the course! It slowed me down but totally distracted me from how tired I was in mile 7!
Right after I took this, some runner literally hurdled this thing like it was no big deal. My legs couldn’t handle that.
I know that running is totally a mental game, so I wasn’t surprised when I started feeling tired only 3 miles into my run. I was not doing a good job of thinking on the bright side and kept waiting for the moment when I hit the wall, but it never happened. I had to stop to walk about 4 times to drink water, but I only stopped for about 10 seconds each time and had no problem starting up again. Once I hit the turnaround spot, I felt so much better – just knowing that I was on my way back to the car cheered me up so much! I finished in 1:40 with a 12:31 minute/mile pace, which is exactly what I hoped I would do! I’m pretty sure it took me longer to do those 7 crazy miles last week!
So this is what I’ve learned this weekend: it’s actually a good idea to scare yourself every once in a while. Doing scary stuff is really hard, but it feels so good once you’ve gotten through it! If you keep doing things that aren’t scary, you’ll never know how awesome it feels to work through tough stuff and come out on top. If I had never signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, I would have spent all day Sunday watching Netflix and would have never known how nice it felt to run 8 miles through the woods on a mild winter day. And I have even more scary stuff planned for later this week, so stay tuned!
What’s the last scary thing that you’ve done? Did you do a long run this weekend? Tell me all about it!
Mom in the Mtns 
Oh my gosh girl we have the same basic pace goal for our races! And you’re only a week ahead of me on the training. Annnd you’re using the Hal Higdon method. Virtual race partner right here!
Yes!!!! This is awesome! We definitely need to complain about our long runs together 🙂
Glad you got back out there after your scare last week 🙂
Me too! I have to admit that the weather definitely helped me get out there!
Great job on your 8 miler! I feel you on not being motivated to go long without a race coming up- if I never raced I’d probably max out at 5 miles 🙂
I love the idea to do something every day that scares you! I’m not too good at it since I’m a wuss, but any effort is better than none! It reminds me of the quote that’s something like “life is what happens outside your comfort zone”
Yes! It’s totally the same thing. And yeah, my max during non-race training times is about 5 miles so I definitely agree with you on that!
good for you!!!
i was def scared with my last long run of 15 miles!! but i gotter done
🙂
Oh my god I can’t even imagine! Does 8 miles feel easier now that you’ve done 15? My new fear is 9 miles next week and I’m trying not to think about it! This long run stuff isn’t as cool as I thought it would be!
Nice! Glad you had some balmy 45-degree weather.
I know! It felt so warm. Today was 55 and I wasn’t wearing a jacket (although I probably should have, but it felt so warm compared to last Tuesday!).
Thanks for linking up to Motivate Me Monday! And honestly, this post was VERY motivating! Sometimes I feel like I get immune to all the motivational stuff I see posted, but for some reason this one really hit me. I don’t think I ever do things that scare me, and you’re so right – I don’t really know how good it feels to be on the other side of something scary! I do plan on doing a half marathon sometime in the next couple years, so I’m sure that will be scary enough. Buuuut I wonder what I can do in the meantime? Thanks for giving me something to think about! (Also, huge congrats on making it through your 8 miles at the perfect pace!!!)
Thanks! I feel like I go through periods where I’m perfectly fine staying where I am in life, and then I have times where I feel ready to try something new. I get super excited about it, but then as it gets closer I get super nervous! I’ve got a lot of the scary stuff going on right now which is kind of exciting after a boring December 🙂 Totally try for that half marathon! And in the mean time you should try for longer races, like maybe a 10k or 15k. They’re really fun and they usually come with a medal at the finish line if that helps!
Well hooray for balance, with a boring month followed by a not-so-boring one! And yeah, I definitely want to bridge the gap between 5k and half marathon with at least one 10k. I’m all about baby steps and easing into things!!
The scary things are what make you stronger in the long run!! I’m glad that you pushed through and did this run. 🙂
Thanks! I’m happy too! Adding a mile every weekend is so terrifying, but the more good long runs I do the better I feel. I’m just hoping there’s no snow on the ground this weekend, running on snowless ground makes it so much less scary!