Thursday, January 7, 2016

It Was All Mental

Today's run was ALL mental! But, I'm getting ahead of myself, so I will go back to the beginning.

I had 20 miles on the calendar for tomorrow. That was until some girlfriends and I decided that instead of doing Christmas gifts we would do a girls weekend and it landed on THIS weekend. I knew missing my long run or trying to fit it in while in San Francisco wouldn't be an option, so I decided to move it up a day and get it in this morning.

This issue is... EL NINO! You see, they have been predicting this cold, wet winter for months now and it finally decided to rear its ugly little face this week. The weather has been CRAY-CRAY because of it. Legit, we have had flood warnings, tornado watches, wind advisories, an earthquake, you name it, we've had it.

An old coworker texted me this picture yesterday... This is outside our office...
RIGHT WHERE I USED TO PARK MY CAR! Thankfully no one (or vehicles)
were injured in the crazy windstorm!

[And a quick video to show the rain we are getting... This was yesterday afternoon]


Well, I knew 20 miles on my hand-me-down treadmill wouldn't really be an option so I went to be praying that the weather would be runable when I woke up.

THANK YOU JESUS! It was sprinkling and in the 50s when I got up. They were predicting thunderstorms, but I no longer saw it on my weather app so I suited up and made my way down to Carlsbad (the hubby feels more comfortable if I run in Carlsbad before the sun comes up as opposed to Oceanside).

Looks like perfect running weather to me!

The closer to Carlsbad I got, the windier and rainier it got... That didn't seem like a good thing, but I was DETERMINED to get this run done! I parked, put on my rain jacket, turned on my headlamp and got out of the car. I made it maybe a tenth of a mile away from the car and then it happened - LIGHTNING! Well, I am all about getting my run in, but I am also all about safety. I turned my butt right around and went back to the car.

A BIG thumbs down... But my #1 concern is health and safety!

I decided that I would go back to the house and run around there. I figured there was a 5 mile loop that I could do by the house. At most, when I am running it, I am 2 miles max away from the house. I figured that if they weather got bad I could head back to the house and finish up the remainder on the treadmill.

Thankfully, when I got back home it was just sprinkling like it had been when I left so I took off on my 20-miler for the second time. It rained off and on but the lightning stayed away - HOORAY! By the time I was finishing my first lap the sun was actually starting to break through the clouds.

It was like God was painting me a pretty picture to look at while I ran

And after my second loop I caught a glimpse of a rainbow! Honestly, it looked like the pot of gold could have been at our house from this view... but either it wasn't or the hubby took it with him to work so he wouldn't have to share because I didn't come across it when I got home.

If only the winning PowerBall ticket was in the
mysterious pot of gold... 

I took my PROBAR BOLT chews at miles 6, 12 and 16. The first two sets I took on the run, but when it was time for my third round I just wanted a bit of a break so sat down on a park bench to give my feet a brief rest when I nibbled on my yummies.

Strawberry is my JAM! What's your favorite flavor?!

Like I said in the title, this run was 100% mental. Sure, don't get me wrong, running 20 miles is definitely a physical feet, but what was hardest was the mental aspect. My pace was the slowest it had been for any training run (not sure if it is because of fatigue, slowing down due to the slick ground, tired legs, knowing that I was so close to the house and wanting to just crawl back into my warm bed or what) so every time I looked at my watch I got more and more defeated.

I decided it was just about putting the miles in the bank today. Not all runs are great, but I did it and I might be a tad bit stronger (at least mentally) because of it. And, shoot, I even got to test out one of my next Christmas gifts... my reflective vest!


Now I can go to San Francisco without a long run looming over my head (I will have a 5-miler but am hoping I can fit it in one morning before the other girls wake up). It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fast, but it is D-O-N-E!


How do you push through the difficult workouts?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

But dude... 20 on your own. I can't even FATHOM that!

BTW, what are you training for? Or are you just trying to maintain that high mileage?