33:41 - The Lost Run

I almost didn't run last night because it got to be so late, and we all know what happens when I try to run late at night.  But I figured, what the heck, and decided that if I struggled too much, I would surrender and resume today.  And I am so glad that I did!!

Since it was a night run, I didn't have either child with me and I opted to watch a little TV while getting my run on.  Lately I've been straining to hear my music over Pippi Longstocking, and I get reprimanded if my music gets too loud.  And while I adore Pippilotta and her music, it's not the most inspiring or distracting while running.  So last night I savored an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Initially, my plan was to do my speed sprints at the top & bottom of every commercial break.  I went for the 7's right out of the gate and resolved to my 5.3 in-between.  But then the unexpected happened.  My leg nudged the safety key and it fell out of place, shutting off the treadmill, and losing whatever progress I had made.  Ugh!  I knew I had gone at least 0.3 miles, definitely more, but that was the last number I looked at, and I have NO IDEA what my time was because I had been covering it with a towel so as not to psych myself out.  Having to be omnipotent, I decided I couldn't just run 2.8 more miles and ignore the time.  So I started over.  Knowing how I feel after I run 3.1 miles, I didn't expect too much as far as time goes since I knew I'd be running further than I have ever run before.  It was also at this point that I decided to change my strategy.

Instead of sprinting at the top & bottom of every commercial break, which was proving to have too much down time, I decided I was going to just listen to my body.  When I felt ready to sprint I would sprint.  When sprinting felt like it was too much, I would slow down and stay there until I felt OK enough to sprint again.  I would not pay attention to any distance or time as far as the sprints go, I was just going to do it.  And let me tell you, this was the best idea in the whole world!  I let myself get worn out a little bit, but I never pushed to the point where I had to slow down to a 5.0 to recover.  And I didn't sprint before I was ready to, so I felt like I got more out of the sprints and the more I did, the more I was able to do.  At some point I do want to time them to see how far/long I can sprint for, but I think I'm going to stick with this for quite some time because it worked really well!  I lifted the towel every now & then just to see if I was nearing the 3 mile mark so I could pay attention to what my actual time was, but I never really looked at the numbers, just watched TV and followed what my body told me to do. 

When I saw the 3 mile mark coming up, I lifted the towel and was shocked to see that I was only nearing 33 minutes!  I could TOTALLY hit my fastest time if not beat it, but I would have to work for it.  So I prepared myself for it and pushed it all the way to 7 for the rest of the run.  I was just racing the clock now.  I started to doubt that I'd  meet the 33:48, and it came really close, but I was running pretty fast and the 0.1 mile went by pretty quickly.  I hit 3.1 miles at 33:41!!  I only beat it by 7 seconds, but I did it!!  Super proud of myself for this :) 

I'm hoping I can get it under 30 minutes, but I'm not sure I can do that by the 25th.  I am signing up to run the Spotswood 5K on September 15th, so maybe I can be under 30 minutes by then!  And if I'm not, I'm OK with that.  I'm very happy with what I'm doing now, it's more than I ever imagined I could do!  When I started this, my goal was to beat 45 minutes, and I did that the first time I ran it.  What more can I really ask for?!