If It's Fun

Despite the attitude of my past few posts, running is going great. It’s great in the sense that I love it. It’s great because I’m excited for the future, but also content right now. Sure, my times aren’t faster and I’m being a lot more cautious of fatigue and energy intake, but on the whole I’m enjoying this block.

The past weekend was extremely reaffirming for me. On Friday I did a workout of 2 miles at 6:00 pace, 5 miles at 6:18 pace and then 2 miles at 6:00. Essentially half marathon, marathon and then half marathon pace again. Is this as fast as my teammates? Nope, but it’s good for me right now. It felt great to hit a workout and finish feeling tired but strong. I needed that mental boost. On Saturday I did 2 hours over hilly, snowy terrain. What a beautiful morning! Got grabbed about 15.5 miles and a few frozen eyelashes. We got a snowstorm on Friday, so I had the roads to myself at 6AM on Saturday, quite a luxury. Sunday I met my team for about 2.5 hours on some slushy hills in Ellis Hollow. I do enjoy the friendships I’ve made, so although I was expecting to be tired, the miles flew by and I got about 19.5. Including Friday, I approached 48 miles for those three days. 

Damn that felt good. Miles are meaningless, it’s the time out there and being able to recover that matters to me. I have a few plans for this spring, so being able to do higher mileage (for me) is extremely reassuring. 

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and recovering from running. I went to my friend’s snowshoe race, which was worth the drive just to hang with them for a while. Snowshoeing is definitely not in my future. I’d rather surf on volcanic lava thank you very much. I finished a book, did some laundry, cleaned my apartment and ate a lot of toast and ice cream. I read an article about Jim Wamsley’s diet and how he fuels his high mileage training. Dude is a vegetarian and when he feels thinner or lethargic he pounds a pint of B&Js after dinner. After getting sick and shedding a few pounds I didn’t have to lose, I like this mindset. I can’t afford that everyday but my local Target has pints for $1.79 so that’s more budget friendly. Why don’t I get a quart you ask? Freezer space and I get tired of it before I finish it. Whatever gets the calories in and the job done is what I say.

Three weeks until the Trials and I’m getting the stoke back. I might not be my fastest in Atlanta, but I’ll be having a crazy fun time. That’s all that really matters isn’t it?