2 bad runs

This weeks' runs have been pretty eye-opening for me.

Monday, I set out with Jennifer on a 7 mile trek around her neighborhood, and I didn't feel bad before we left (in fact, I did everything normally, Mexican food the night before, cheese toast English muffin for breakfast, etc.) Perhaps it was the holiday weekend that got me, but I trudged through the first 4.89 miles, and probably stopped at least once every mile to catch my breath/walk off sore legs. We finally reached our water stop, got some drinks, visited with Jennifer's sister in law, and stretched before our final 2.11 miles. I thought it'd be better from there on out, but had to stop again in the middle of mile 6. Finally, we made it back to her road and I managed to finish the last mile without stopping, but it was pretty tough. The overwhelming reward of finishing this awful 7-miler was jumping off the end of the dock into the lake. However, one lesson learned, sore legs don't do too much for you in the treading water department. Next time we'll use floaties!

After that bad run, I really really wasn't looking forward to Wednesday's run. Jenny and I set out on our usual 4 mile loop and quickly realized, we weren't going to make it the full distance. Both of us had sore legs and quite frankly, just weren't feeling it! We pushed ourselves to finish 3 miles. Our pace was more than 1min/mile slower than usual. Not much to say other than it just wasn't good.

FINALLY, this morning, we broke the cycle with a great 4 miler. Both Jenny and I knew it was a "good run day" within the first half mile. We hit our stride at a much better pace than Wednesday, and only stopped to walk/stretch after the giant hill. I started talking about our goal to keep running after the big hill. We also discussed the hills in the Georgetown course, because Jenny is now registered to do it with us!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have both my running buddies with me for race day!

All this to say, I've never experienced a "bad run" on a long run day before. Nor have I experienced two "bad runs" in a row like I did this week. I just need to continue to remind myself that training is all about preparing your mind and body for WHATEVER comes your way on race day, and preparing to persevere through it, no matter what.

There are 36 days left til race day! Not sure if I'm more excited about the race, or about a weekend at the beach!