Running is Running My Life!

Lately, my life seems to revolve around all things running. Between training 39 people (nineteen for a 5K and 20 for a half-marathon) and training myself five days a week for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon (I'm in week 7 of a 20-week program), running is RUNNING MY LIFE. It controls what I eat, when I sleep, what I wear, where I go, what I read..... And for now, I'm ok with it. Ask me again in about 9 weeks!

Even though my life is perhaps a bit too running-focused right now, I'm still finding pleasure in it. Burnout has yet to rear its ugly head. It is still my escape. It is still when I feel the most free, alive, and strong.

Some runs are more fun than others, though. Here's my week in running so far:

On Monday evening, I ran about a mile with my Couch to 5K group. They are in week 2, and I'm just starting to get to know them. It was fun to chat with several of them as we ran. It's always nice to run with new folks! Then afterwards, the half-marathon group met and we ran two miles and they FLEW by. We did a few hill-repeats and I actually enjoyed them, just like last week. Could I be starting to LIKE HILLS???

My Tuesday morning run was going to be a slow, lonely 6-miler because my running buddy is sick, but I was able to recruit another friend to run with me at the last second. Unfortunately, she was planning a 5-mile tempo run at an 8:49 pace. (Yes, that's faster than my 5K pace.) I was supposed to be running 6 miles at a 10:45-11:00 minute pace. What's really interesting is that she had taken several months off from running and just picked it back up about 6 weeks ago and is STILL faster than me. Anywho, we figured we could make it work and took off. Our warm up was a 10-minute mile, which is reasonable I suppose. We decided to run to a local park with a quarter-mile track. When we got there, I'd run 2 laps with her at her pace, and then walk/gasp for breath/jog while she ran the last 2 laps. Then we'd do it again. So, unintentionally, I was doing speed intervals, 800's to be exact. I think I did 3 speedy 800's even though they weren't in my plan.

Running hills on Monday night, then speed work on Tuesday morning only 13 hours later left me really, really drained. The "not so fun" miles I mentioned above were the ones I ran today. To get the weekly mileage my plan calls for in, I had to drag my tired body through another four miles today. I told myself it was just going to be an easy recovery run--"active recovery" and would be good for me. I kept telling myself that as my legs and lower back ached..... But I got them done (with LOTS of walk breaks). This was one of those times when running shows you what you're made of. You are tired, it hurts (generally, not in an injured-sort-of-way. You shouldn't run through that kind of pain), but you keep going. "You plan your run and you run your plan." Tomorrow is a rest day (Thank God!) before my 13-miler on Friday.

I'll be hitting 29 miles for the week when I meet the C25K and half-marathon groups for a short run on Saturday morning.

Last month, by the way, was my MOST MILEAGE EVER in one month. August total: 105 miles, beating the previous record in March of this year by one mile!

Year to date: 651 miles* No wonder I'm tired.

(*I only had 606 for the entire year in 2008.)