Challenging Myself

A day after writing about perhaps running in the evening again, I made the switch for at least one day. It was colder than usual this morning and I was short on time, so a run was out of the question in the a.m. I usually take Thursday off anyway, but tomorrow's forecast is for snow and ice in the morning, so I had to adjust things. So I took a 36-hour break and ran after I got off work today.

About a mile into the run, I thought that I needed to do something different. The run was just boring and it was quickly getting dark. So, I thought since I hadn't done much speed work besides this past weekend's race that I'd see how fast I could run a mile. Since running in the evening is unlike me, why not throw my body for an even bigger loop? So after 2 miles, I hit the lap button on my Garmin and took off. And I felt like I was going nowhere! I managed a 7:40 mile, which I'm very pleased with -- it was nearly 12 hours later than I'm used to, it was after a busy day at work and I had Mexican for lunch. So yes, 7:40 is great. It just felt like I could've done better, and that's a great feeling to have.

With a little more than three weeks to go to the Shamrock Half Marathon, things really seem to be falling into place. I just have a few pounds I'd like to shed and I think I'm well on my way with that.