Just step out the door.
He is right, you know. Just step out the door and something good is bound to happen. I've heard so many runners say I never regretted any run, and it's true for me too. Even the crappy ones when I quit early are still runs when I tell myself it was better than finding myself at the bottom of the Cheetos bag. I could just step out the door, I knew that I would find more to be happy about than I could complain about.
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I feel like this run would have been Bob Ross-approved. Plenty of "happy little trees". |
I am the captain of the I heart my Garmin fan club right now. Running with a heart rate monitor has seriously changed how I run and what I recognize about what it feels like to run at the right pace. Since I started wearing my HRM I have not had to walk on any runs. I feel like I understand pacing now. I feel like I am finally able to figure out what my own perfect pace is, where before I had been arbitrarily picking a number (say, 11:00/mile) and saying "yeah, that's my goal."
What a nerd.
Anyway, the funny thing is that I thought I wanted a Garmin so I could see how fast I was running. I'm actually not so interested in my pace or speed as I'm running. Those things are nice to see when I get home. But when I am out on the road I keep the screen set on the HRM for about 90% of the time and I wait for the "auto lap" feature to tell me when I've hit each mile. I've been running a route I know really well, anyway, so I don't have to look to know that it's a mile to the first driveway into Savemart or two miles when I hit the end of the fence at the junior high.
Last night I did another tempo run using my HR as a guide. I tried to keep my HR between 65-75% of max for my warmup and cooldown miles, and then I ran two miles in the middle where I tried to keep it between 85-95% of max. I'm using info I got from the Runnersworld.com website. Those two miles in the middle were "comfortably hard" but I was really enjoying the smell of (almost) rain, the blooming trees, the Coldplay in my ears, and my non-chafed thighs thanks to my tight-covered legs.
My splits:
Mile 1: 12:41
Mile 2: 11:10
Mile 3: 11:25
Mile 4: 13:20
Avg pace: 12:20
Slow but steady, right?
It was going great. So great, in fact, that I was thinking I'd do an ooey-gooey blog post about my awesomesauce run and how zen I was... and then I ate big pavement at almost exactly the two mile mark.
It wasn't as spectacular as my first fall--alone and in the dark at 5:30 AM--the one that left me with a stiff ankle and a fear of running before work. I didn't hurt myself too bad, either, but since I landed this spectacular slow-mo fall right at the corner of the two major cross streets in town I am sure someone at work is going to say "OHMYGOD, Mrs. P! I totally saw you laying on the sidewalk yesterday!"
My pride hurts more than my hands (which took the brunt of it), and I am mostly happy I didn't rip my one expensive pair of running tights. I actually kind of can't believe that I have only fallen twice while running for two years. I fall more times than that during any given morning teaching English.
I still don't regret it and it was still a really good run. But for my moment of glory on the sidewalk, I didn't have to take any breaks. I felt so good when I got home. This run was exactly the quiet time I'd been craving. Just get out the door. Good mantra, right?
ohmygod. It's your biting-pavement stories that make me reconsider my pregnant running habit.
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