Stick with it

For the past couple of weeks, I've had to run on Sundays because of our schedules. I definitely prefer early Saturday morning runs, but that just hasn't been feasible. And to be honest, the Sunday runs have been nice, especially since my sister and I have been able to run together. I knew I wasn't going to be able to run early this morning, but after seeing that tomorrow holds possible wind gusts of 55 mph, I figured running this afternoon in the cold was better than running tomorrow with warmer temperatures in the wind.

It seemed to take me forever to "gear up" for my run this afternoon, which gave me entirely too long to contemplate the nine-miler I was facing. I think I really like early morning runs because my feet are moving long before my brain has had time to realize what is about to happen. It took a few long slow miles to get in the groove, but I got that awesome feeling I normally get around mile 8 at around mile 6 today...oh, so nice! I love that feeling where it seems all my body parts actually belong to the same body and want to get along. In fact, I reached 9 miles and felt like more, so I tacked on .3 to make it a 15K since that's what I have planned in February. I really thought about going for 10 at that point, but sanity won out and I headed home.

The run started off with the potential to go south in a hurry. I almost turned around after just a quarter mile because I was cold. I had to change course for a dog...the same dog I later had to get out my pepper spray for (but luckily didn't have to use). My water bottles were leaking Gatorade all down my back side. However, I am so glad I stuck it out and enjoyed the run, even if it took a while to get that feeling. Sometimes that's just the way it is...we stick out the tough parts, and that makes the good stuff that much sweeter.

Mileage
This week: 25.55 miles (because I had a Sunday run and a Saturday run)
YTD: 50.8 miles