This Week in Running

I had a nice week o' running. I did 3 miles on Monday with a neighbor in my neighborhood, 4 miles on Tuesday with my running club, and 3 miles on Thursday in the running class I teach. Tuesday's run was on the track at the local college with my running club. It was supposed to be speed intervals, but I'm really working on endurance right now, not speed. I did one 400 meter lap at an 8:20 pace, and after that, I just focused on maintaining a consistent pace. That was harder to do than normal because I didn't have my Garmin. It started to sprinkle, then briefly to rain hard, but I LOVED it! I didn't have a hat, and rain was pelting me in the face, but it was still awesome. I just felt so thankful to be out there at all. This song, Glory to God, came on my mp-3 at just the right moment when the rain started. "Take my life and let it be all for You and for Your Glory, take my life and let it be Yours...." Then the rain stopped and a big ole rainbow came out right behind the stadium. (Told ya it was a neat run!) I remember running on that track with big fat snow falling just a few months ago and thinking how beautiful it was. I love how images like that get frozen in your memory.

Yesterday, I did my first eight-miler since my injury! I started about 30-40 seconds too fast in the first couple of miles. That, of course, made miles 6-8 a little harder than they had to be. I finished strong though. It reminds me of when I was first adding mileage and that extra one mile seemed so hard each week. I think I'm going to stay at 8 for my long run for the next few weeks and just focus on running 8 better before moving on to 9 and 10. The half-marathon is still about 8 weeks away, so there is plenty of time.

I'm enjoying several new running buddies. Our running club membership has soared to over 100 members in the last few months, and I have 19 ladies in my YMCA half-marathon training group. I love meeting new people and sharing my passion for running and fitness with them! I might never have crossed paths with some of these folks were it not for running!

I also have my first individual personal running coach client who found me on the RRCA website. We meet today for the first time. She needs help with passing the running portion of a physical fitness test for her job. (Must be military or law enforcement. I'm pretty sure most employers don't care if you can run 1.5 miles, but perhaps they should?) :-)