Six

In my last post, I told you about my 5 mile run. I was hoping to be further along with my training by this point, but sometimes you can't control what's going on with the rest of your life. Just gotta press on.

Two days after the 5 mile run, I did 3 miles at the gym in the evening after work. I am usually the one who puts our son to bed at night, but I missed out on that in order to run. I felt a little sad about missing bedtime, but I know I have to keep up the running and I know that my husband enjoys the bedtime routine with our son too... I guess I have to share. The routine is: put on jammies, drink 3 ounces of milk from a bottle (I can't break the habit... taking away this bottle means he is no longer a baby), say a goodnight prayer, sing "Jesus Loves Me" and then say "I love you" about 15 times before putting him in his crib. I love that routine. Simple, easy, short, but so precious. Sometimes I wonder if my toddler is thinking "Mommy, enough with the kisses! Put me down so I can go to sleep already!!!"

The run that night was good though. I'm glad I was able to get to the gym and knock out 3 miles in 30 minutes. It was similar to my 5 mile run. I felt great, felt happy, felt alive. I grocery shopped after the run and may have purchased a few unnecessary items due to post workout hunger. It happens.

That was Tuesday night. I didn't run the rest of the week to give my knees a little rest. It didn't work out in our schedule to run Friday or Saturday, so I knew I had to run Sunday. I think Sunday is quickly becoming my long run day.

My goal: 6 miles

Due to the crappy May 1st weather, I ran indoors at the gym. As I drove to the gym, I saw people running outside with winter hats and gloves on. I thought that maybe I'm too weak and should be running outside like the rest of them. But that thought quickly faded. Who am I kidding... I hate running in cold weather. I arrived at the gym and saw that my favorite treadmill next to the window was available. Yessss! I hopped on, pressed start and nothing happened. It was broken. Lame. I moved over one to the left (one spot further away from the window), which ended up being okay. Is anyone else as picky about their treadmill location as I am?

The run started off well. I listened to the David Crowder Pandora station again and gave a thumbs up to a few songs throughout the run. My mind wandered a little bit throughout the run. It was definitely more difficult than the 5 miler last Sunday. A couple reasons might be that first, the sun wasn't shining and second, I was hungry. I'm obviously a rookie runner because I went to the gym after church at lunchtime without having eaten anything since about 8:30 that morning. But more than anything, it was more challenging mentally yesterday.

Running is such a mental test. Especially running longer (for me) distances indoors. Miles 1 and 2 were just fine. At mile 3.5, I started feeling pretty tired (possibly the lack of food in my system). I stopped for a quick sip of water at miles 3, 4 and 5. I figured it was okay to take a quick water stop. I try to be invisible at the gym, so if I passed out by trying to not stop running and not drink water, people would really notice me flying off the treadmill scoring treadmill burn on my face. I don't want that.

Once I got to 5.5 miles, I knew I could finish it. My mental game got stronger and I told myself I could do it. Throughout the challenging 3.5 to 5.5 miles though, I tried to focus on the Harbor House. I thought about the young mothers who we're raising the money for and that I need to push through this for them. It helped.

I did it. I got to 6 miles and in pretty good time too. I don't have a goal time in mine for this race. I ran the half in 2 hours and 30 minutes last year, so I'd like to beat that as a personal challenge, but that's not on the front of my mind.

It felt amazing to come home and tell my husband that I accomplished the 6 mile goal. He had a huge smile on his face and congratulated me. Despite the challenges during the run, it feels so good to accomplish that goal. Maybe its sweeter knowing that it was difficult and yet I didn't quit.

I'm curious to see what next Sunday will bring.