I ran 8MILES!!!!

For a week I have been pumping myself up for my run on Saturday I had planned to run 8 miles. I knew that I had to get in my mileage or I would be really behind my training. For the last couple of weeks I haven’t been following my training schedule http://halhigdon.com/training/51131/Half-Marathon-Novice-1-Training-Program

as it suggests that I should, that’s not to say that I haven’t been doing amazing with my training I have just been focusing more on my strength training than my running. I run a couple miles non-consecutively at the gym each night that I go which is about 3-4x a week and then run whatever my schedule has down for Saturday and about 3-4 miles on Sunday.

Saturday I woke up at 5:40am had most of my gear laid out the night before. I made my favorite breakfast but made it a little bigger so that I would have the fuel I needed for the run. I had ½ cup quick oatmeal, 2tbsp of natural jiff peanut butter, and 3tbs of raw natural honey. On my way out the door I popped in my GU gels and set out for the open road. 

By the time I started my run it was 6:30am and my WeatherBug app said it was 39* but felt like 35*. I forgot to take a picture of my outfit but I had on a tank top under a long sleeve shirt, and a light weight jacket. I also had two stomach wraps underneath all that, with compression capris, long socks, and gloves.

Surprisingly it wasn’t as cold as I thought it was…well not until the end when my skin started to hurt from being so cold. At one point I thought I had a wedgie but I don't wear underwear when I run ;) so that's how cold my tush was!

 

I got a lot of weird looks too! People were on their way to eat take out for breakfast and saw me put-puttin’ along. Speaking of take-out on my run I passed by a total of 21 places to eat!!!! I didn’t want anything to eat during my run but one restaurant had the smell of BBQ wafting through the air and that always makes my mouth water.

Anyways, back to my run, my ankle didn’t bother me and neither did the rest of my body but I did find myself a little bit bored twice. Two of the roads I decided to go down had nothing to look at and those were the roads that I had trouble running down. I just kept thinking to myself if you run this will all be over more quickly than if you walk. On long runs my pace is always about 2-5mins slower than normal just so that I don’t get tired too quickly or want to quit. If I run more slowly than I’m more liable to finish my planned run rather than take a quick detour back to the house.

About mile 6 I was done. I was tired, certain parts of my body felt like I had frostbite, and my music just wasn’t cutting it. But I kept up my pace and finished strong!!!

I ran 8 MILES!!!!!!! I couldn’t be more thrilled!!!!

Each week I just KNOW that I can do so many more things…Each week I believe in myself more and more and I’m so thankful that I believed in myself to train like I have been and to actually have set this high of a goal! This goal not only scares the SHIT out of me but it also shows how much I am capable of. I am also happy that I didn’t lose hope when I sprained my ankle back in August, if I would’ve given up right then and there I would probably not have accomplished this mileage I have up until this point.

My ultimate goal for the half marathon on November 24^th is to finish at or under 3hours and my 8 mile run Saturday I finished at almost exactly 2hours. So if my training pace is always wayyy slower than my racing pace I might just meet that goal…but if I don’t I will try my best not to be disappointed in myself I will just have to be happy that I finished and hopefully without walking at all!!