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| Breaking for a pic mid-run on Saturday |
Summer may be my favorite season but spring is my favorite season for running. No question.
This weekend was one of the best running weekends I’ve had in many, many months. And I savor the beauty of the surrounding areas that I’m able to run in — namely up and down the Mt. Vernon trail and through the awesome landmarks in Washington, DC.
Here’s a little recap of my workout routine this weekend:
- Friday: 3 mile run, 2 mile walk on treadmill, arm circuit
- Saturday: 6.5 mile run/walk outside with R
- Sunday: 7.5 mile fast run outside
Yesterday morning was rough but once I got out there, I was so glad. It felt so good to run fast for an extended period of time in the sunshine. I really pushed myself — thinking if I start running faster during these shorter runs, perhaps I can kick it up a notch with marathon training starts.
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| Portion of my Saturday run. |
Here’s something all three of this weekend’s workouts had in common: I didn’t want to do any of them.
Friday, in particular, was a doozy. I had come home from work a little earlier than usual, caught up on three episodes of “Happy Endings,” eaten a plate of nachos and almost fallen asleep. I was feeling…useless and sort of depressed. But I had the whole evening ahead of me and I knew I wasn’t going to be any fun if I kept laying around like a stranded whale.
I knew the answer. I didn’t want to but…I had to. It was the first step that got me through — put your workout clothes on. I rolled off the couch and slowly put my clothes on. By the time I had my shoes on, the energy neurons had kind of started to flow.
I grabbed a magazine and hauled my butt to the treadmill. No expectations — except start my running 1 mile and at least walk until finishing the magazine.
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| Another portion of Saturday run in Alexandria |
After an hour on the treadmill and an arms circuit, I was feeling 100x better. I took a shower and had regained my energy, optimism and had an appetite. I was able to finish the evening feeling good and enjoying my time with R.
It’s like this…for me, exercise is like magic sometimes, like a drug (in a good way!). It’s amazing how I can go from feeling down in the dumps, like total crap to feeling inspired, motivated and energized.
Sometimes I wish more people would “get” this. It’s often SO hard to get myself to go out there and “just do it” but it’s nearly always a positive reinforcement in my life — in more ways than one.
This is obvious stuff. Most of you already know it but…I just want to encourage folks to remember this next time they are feeling down or unmotivated. Sometimes its like pulling teeth to make myself get out there but oh am I glad I did. It has kept me from many a binge, bad decision or simply wallowing in self pity for whatever non-reason I may have found.
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| From Sunday’s beautiful run |
All the running this weekend has me thinking about marathon training for the fall. Will I be able to get into as much as last year?
After my 3:58, I felt so empowered — like, dude, I could get down to 3:45 next year, easy. Glenn even thinks I could BQ (woa!). But I know how hard I would have to work for that — like tortureously hard. Like running mile repeats that make me want to die hard. Tempo runs that have me wondering why I even like running in the first place.
So…I think it will be a happy medium again. But it’s too early to talk time. I plan on staying with crossfit this year — but that’s a subject for another blog post!
After yesterday morning’s run (where I ran of a few beers and a bunch of pizza as well), I was ready to hit the road for Michelle’s baby shower.
On the way there, I noticed I had a pretty cool new follower on Twitter! If you don’t know, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon! She must be new to Twitter but she is only following 89 people and I’m honored to be one of them!
Anyway, had an overall wonderful weekend. This week, I’m heading to Orlando for work, the next week Indiana for my bridal shower at home and then Jamaica! Also, there’s talk of a last minute batchelorette party the weekend before Jamaica so that should be fun!
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