Gym & Training Day 10 Recap

My training schedule showed that I should do a 2.5 mile long run.  My plan had been to do a real run, pump up the speed to 6.9 and run it out, but then my husband had Friday off so my plans to go to the gym changed to a long run with my friend Michele... who had scheduled a 4 mile run!

So with her kids on a bike and in a stroller, we set off around the town of Mountain House.  I've run two 5ks here and did a training run with their runners group once, but with a late start time it was just the four of us running around the perimeter of the town waving at a few other people out for walks and maybe two other random runners.  Nice wide sidewalks and a few sloping hills through the landscape and great conversation got us to four miles before I could even think about it.  Having the stroller with her I'm sure was a hard thing to do, but secretly I was glad she had it so when she got tired I could have the excuse to walk a little.  I know I know, the cowards way to deal with getting tired, but it does help to walk a little bit every once in a while.

It sounds so silly that all my running during the week would make it easier to run a distance twice as far as I'm used to running, but it went great!  I'm about 100% sure that running is all mental for me.  I remember in college once I went to basketball practice a little hung over/ a little still drunk and took 8 seconds off my mile.  Doesn't sound like a big thing, but I still remember, 20 years later, just how easy it seemed to run that day.  I was distracted by worrying about getting caught and loose enough from the alcohol I'd had to forget about how tired I was and I just ran.  That's probably the only time in my 5 year basketball career where I remember having fun running.  Every other time was a drain!

The other great news of Sunday is that right after my run I weighed myself and the number came up AMAZING!  I know it's probably because I was slightly dehydrated from running, but I did the math in my head and I'm only about 6 lbs away from my "before I met my husband weight".  My ultimate goal is to get back down to my playing weight, in the 150s but by the end of the summer I want to be at least in the 180s.

If I can get to a light weight by race day I'm sure it'll make running a whole six miles so much easier!  Doing the running is definitely helping the weight come off, but my cross-training with 21 Day Fix I'm sure is the reason the weight is coming off faster than my running earlier in the year and in 2014.

I still can't believe I started running races in 2013 when I was in the 220s.  All that extra "baggage" to carrying around is INSANE to think about.