It's been way too long since I posted here but this week was crazy busy for me as I planned to make a trip out of town to see my dad. If you have read here long enough you know that it's been about 2 years since I saw my dad and during that time he was diagnosed with cancer. Also during that time I have lost almost 70 lbs.
I was so happy to travel to GA to my sister's house to visit with her family, my dad and my uncle. And of course they were surprised to see I had done so well in my weight loss efforts. I had sent pictures to my dad all along so he knew I what I was getting done but to actually see in person felt great... for me. But anyway...
to the reason of this post!!
I had debated taking running gear with me or not. I of course decided that since Friday was a rest day and I knew Sunday would be a travel day and that hubby would be in football meetings/practice all.day.long that Saturday was my only chance to burn calories for the weekend. I was up a bit late Friday night due to being sandwiched in bed between my two little hot bodied children and of course didn't sleep well. I laid in bed Saturday morning trying to talk myself out of running but knew that I would feel super guilty if I didn't just go. So I dressed and went to a local park with a concrete walkway to run.
I had not eaten anything since the night before and only drank a little water on the drive there. The weather was perfect. Sunny and a nice 43 degrees. The trail was near the water so it was a bit cooler on one side of the trail. It was not crowded at all but enough people around to make me feel comfortable. I set my music, hit start on Mr. G and ran.
A mile passed and I had hit it under 10 minutes. I kept running. 2 miles, 3 miles and then at 5k I debated on whether I should stop or keep going. At that point I still felt fantastic and was stoked that my pace was still in the 9 minute range so I kept going and decided a 4 miler was where it was at for the day.
I have never felt so great running. My breathing was spot on, my legs felt strong and my mind was free. I had found my happy for the day. Usually when I run on the treadmill I can hold a decent 9:45-10:30 pace for a while but usually talk myself out of staying in the 9s at all for one reason or another. Why was this feeling so good on this run?
Was it excitement of the day? Was it adrenaline of running in a new place? I have no idea but I know it felt good. It felt good to be outside and free to let my thoughts go and just run.
Here are my mile splits.
Mile 1 - 9:33
Mile 2 - 9:21
Mile 3 - 9:16
Mile 4 - 9:01
And there was no walk break, no stopping to stretch or get water... just great solid running.
I have a 10k coming up on Thanksgiving Day. I don't want to jinx myself since I have never ran the course BUT I would love to be able to run that in as close to (or under) an hour as I can. I've only ran one 10k race since I have been running/racing and my finish time (with 60k people on course) was 1:09. So, an hour should doable!?!?
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