I was feeling pretty discouraged on Friday when my IT band started acting up, but I decided to try and not let it get me down. In the afternoon my roommate was driving to the gym (I usually walk) and I decided to hitch a ride and do some strength training since I couldn't run. I pumped some serious iron and felt much better after!
Yesterday my legs felt better, but not perfect...so I decided to take one more rest day. I stretched a bit and decided it was a good thing I was taking a break because the pain was definitely less constant. Instead of working out, I watched a movie with my roommate. Guess what we watched?
you know you love it!!!!
Last night I checked the weather and it said it was supposed to snow today, and I came to terms with the fact that I would probably be running my 8 miles inside. However, when I woke up it didn't look bad out at all. I checked the weather again and it said it wasn't going to start snowing until 2 or 3pm (now it says it's not going to start until 7pm!). I decided that I would try and beat the snow. Just before I left Vic called and said that she had just gotten back from her run with TNT and she said she had done about 8 miles and that it had gone great! I was so unbelievably proud and I knew that if she could tackle 8 miles so could I, so off I went!
It was a little bit "misty" out as I was doing my warm up mile, but I figured I'd suck it up for a little and by the time I started to run it was only partly cloudy and there was not a trace of rain or snow! I went down to the trail where I usually run, and it was incredibly snowy, icy and muddy all at the same time! I ran 4 miles there (2 miles out and 2 miles back) and I was going to do that one more time, but I was starting to get frustrated with slipping with every step and being ankle deep in snow at times. It also caused my time to be pretty slow, so I decided to get off the trail and hit the road.
this is what I felt like!
I ended up finding a stretch that was about 1.3 miles up and back that was snow-less, so I ran that 3 (plus a tiny bit) times for a total of 8 miles. It was an extremely hard run because of the first 4 miles and in the last 4 miles I tackled some mini hills, but I feel so accomplished now! Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 15:50 (warm up)
Mile 2: 10:18
Mile 3: 10:45 (I was ankle deep in snow for part of this one, which definitely slowed me down)
Mile 4: 10:43 (see above)
Mile 5: 10:38
Mile 6: 10:27
Mile 7: 10:09 (check out these negative splits!)
Mile 8: 10:18 (IT band started to hurt a little, see below)
Mile 9: 9:45
Mile 10: 17:06 (cool down)
.18: 3:03 (cool down)
For a total of 10.18 miles in 1:59:06. The running took 1:23:47.
Throughout my run I kept "checking in" with my hips and IT band to make sure I wasn't over doing it. They weren't in pain, just felt a little bit weak (if that makes sense) for the majority of the run. Once I'd been running for 7 miles (8 with the warm up) my IT band was nagging me a little bit, but I figured it was just because I'd been running for an hour at this point and not because of anything serious. When I got home I stretched, and I'm icing my legs now so hopefully that will help!
Not only was this run a little more physically challenging than usual (because of the first 4 miles through snow, and because of my hips/IT band) but it was also a mentally difficult one. I wasn't quite prepared to do an outdoor run today and didn't really give myself time to process that I was, in fact, doing a run outside today! When I was doing my pre-run stretch I was doing a calf stretch called the spider walk, where you lie on your back and I almost fell asleep again! Needless to say, I was kind of tired today and it caused me to almost quit running and walk a few times (but I didn't!!). As I was running if I started to think negative thoughts, I would say out loud "you can do it!". If anyone had been nearby, I probably sounded absolutely nuts, but it seriously helped! In my last mile I picked up my pace and I said out loud "come on!" several times, which helped me get a sub-10 min mile. These aren't my usual mantras (and I usually just pump myself up in my head) but they helped me get through a tough run today.
I'm off to relax for the rest of the day and I'll probably stretch and ice a few more times.
--Melissa
No comments:
Post a Comment