The Joy of Running

After taking the weekend off and completely forgetting to do my core exercises on Monday, I was in desperate need of a good workout on Tuesday. As of late, I've struggled to get runs in that afterward leave me feeling refreshed. I have been walking a lot and cutting my runs short. Doing so leaves me feeling a bit like a failure. With all of this in mind, I went to the gym yesterday to get in a tempo run.

I started off slow and increased my mileage every quarter mile for one mile until I reached my goal pace for the tempo run. After running for what felt like an eternity, I slowed down every quarter mile for a mile and ended my workout. No walking! And despite a tough mental battle, I lasted as long as I'd planned on lasting! Sure enough, I had that post workout high that I have been missing terribly.

So why had I lost that feeling? Why had I been copping out on my runs? Perhaps because I'm not training for anything at the present moment even though I'm supposed to be learning how to run faster. Running faster is hard. I could run for hours at a snails pace - come on, who couldn't? Challenging myself to pick it up gets me out of my comfort zone - there I was, huffing and puffing on the treadmill, probably making a pretty big scene given the relative quiet of the gym... Definitely not ideal for someone who would rather go unnoticed. In the end, though, if I can win that mental battle to stick it out, it is definitely worth it. Ah the joy of running.