Happiness is a 5 Mile Run

First, let's just say that getting myself out there to do the 5 mile run may have been the hardest part of the run.  It was on the schedule for Sunday and it didn't happen.  I'm having some issues with my endometriosis that I went to the doctor about on Monday and had an ultrasound today (of course it didn't show much of anything - I can't remember ever having one that actually showed my endometriosis unless I had giant endometrial cysts on my ovaries), and well I just didn't feel like exercising with pressure in my pelvis.

And then I felt guilty about it.  I want to do the Princess Half Marathon in March.  I'm all paid up, as are the girls for their kids run.  The off season was supposed to be about getting faster at running, and before I knew it, a calf strain and Mom's breast cancer surgery later, I'm sitting here thinking I need to get my butt in gear.  Coach has been patient as all get out, but both she and I know:  If you don't train for it you're not gonna do it.  So she told me do the 5 miles instead of cross training. 

Yesterday by the time I got a chance to even contemplate going for a run, it was getting dark, I was a bit in shock from the doctor saying it might be a good idea to remove my uterine lining without even seeing an ultrasound (I'm getting a 2nd opinion from my regular OB GYN, who is in the same practice, once they look at the ultrasound), having my mammogram, and knowing I had to go back for the ultrasound this morning.  So I did an hour of yoga and told myself that I would run the 5 miles today.  I really did need the yoga.  I was much calmer about everything afterwards.  But I still had that 5 miles hanging over my head.

And I held myself to it.  Coach emailed this morning and asked if I ran the 5 miles yesterday.  I told the truth, but she didn't email back.  I'm just hoping she was busy at work today and isn't too annoyed with me. Rightfully so, she gets annoyed when she's coaching you and you don't do what she tells you to do. 

But, I think I made up for it.  The run was supposed to be a 5 mile run at a pace that is 1-2 minutes slower than you want to run in the race.  I want to run a 10 minute mile pace (that is probably the fastest I will have ever run in my life... honest to goodness), so I figured I wanted somewhere between 11 minutes and 12 minutes per mile. 

I was nervous about running it.  I haven't run 5 miles straight in awhile.  It's been long enough that the loop I did in the neighborhood I was pretty sure was my 5 mile loop that I came up with last year, but I couldn't remember if it was the 5 mile or the 6 mile one while I was doing it.  Coach wanted me to do it running 5/1's.  As she put it to me, all we need is for you to hurt yourself between now and the race and you can kiss your finisher's medal good-bye.  And I am a girl who likes me a nice finishers medal.  It's all about the bling, dahling! Not to mention that Team in Training starts up February 1st.  Hello, St. Anthony's! 

Once I got myself out the door (in my under armour running pants - I didn't need them... should have gone with the running shorts after all.  I got pretty hot.), I focused on doing my 5/1's and realized I was going along at a decent clip and when I got to the point to turn for the last of the 5 miles, I realized I still felt pretty good and wasn't having aches, pains, etc.  I felt like I could have gone farther even.  I saw on the watch that my last running 5 was going to be close to put me at the door step to my house - the 5.0 miles exactly.  So I ran a little harder.  Not a lot harder, mind you, because I heard Coach's voice in my head that this was supposed to be a long "easy" run.  But a little bit harder.  And I finished in 58:12. That's just a smidge over an 11:38 minute per mile pace.  Not super fast, but pretty much right near what I was supposed to run it in. 

Oh yeah.  Happiness is a 5 Mile Run.  Let's just hope I can get my speed work done tomorrow... although I'm tempted to move the speedwork to Thursday and do my strength training tomorrow.  We'll just have to see what happens...