But I did it!
I decided last night that I would sleep in today - so I woke up at 7:30. My internal clock as really changed since I have started early morning workouts. Nine AM often feels like noon to me now. Anyhow, I am slow to get started this morning, checking tennis scores online, reading a few blogs, looking up how to make brown sugar bacon and a pumpkin souffle pancake (I am not proud - I have not yet crossed over to the girl who thinks fruit is candy....yet. I did buy a lot of grapes yesterday so I am trying). Shortly after printing off my recipe, I decide to get my butt moving. By now, it is 8:45 which could spell disaster if you are planning on running 13 miles in July in Georgia.
I have never felt so unmotivated. I had to force myself to get ready. I am mulling over routes in my head (Stone Mtn, Lifetime to Peachtree Ridge and back, run around the neighborhood). I finally settle on running in and around Mountain Park. The thought being it was relatively flat as compared to my second choice of Stone Mountain. I got a new foot pod yesterday that works with my Polar Heart Rate monitor. The park is the ideal place to calibrate it so that was in my head too.
I drag my butt to the car, bring along my amphipod for water, a couple of gel packs and my ipod. I am geared up and can only imagine what I look like. I get to Mountain Park put the watch in calibrate mode and run the required mile. The footpod can't calibrate. UGH! Second try, run another mile. Success! Calibrated and ready to go. Spend a few minutes figuring out the settings and take off. The plan was to run 6 miles in one direction and then turn around and come back the other 6 which would give me 14 miles total since I ran 2 miles messing around with the foot pod.
The weather turned out to be decent. A lot of cloud cover, no sun. I got soooo lucky. My route took my past Mountain Park, past Mtn Park elementary and in and around the neighborhoods eventually ending up on Pounds round near Wal-Mart. I didn't quite get the six miles in one direction and had to keep making detours until my mileage came out to 12 but I made it work. (Actually, I ended up with 13.25 ... close enough) I even saw a couple of people I knew along the way, my Dad's friend Steve (see photos from Peachtree) was exiting Brusters around mile 9 when I was daydreaming about Butter Pecan ice cream and then Vanessa was getting a walk in at Mountain Park when I was doing my last mile.
I am not going to lie, those last 1.5 to 2 miles were HARD. Between the Peachtree on Friday and then the stair workout yesterday, my legs were feeling it. I did the final mile in Mountain Park just to make sure the foot pod was calibrated right. I was a sweaty mess but made 13.25 in about 2:20. Definitely not a personal best but today was just about running down the miles. Funny how conquering your own mind and doing what you set out to do makes you feel instantly better!
The foot pod was dead on with the mileage. I *LOVE* it. You don't have to map out your runs for mileage or drive them in your car or go somewhere where the mileage is already marked. This is the best investment. I wish I had investigated a bit more before buying the nike one, although I will probably end up sending that to my niece, Clare. She has been running quite a bit and has even done a couple triathlons. Her Mom clocked her on her cell phone last time much to Clare's dismay so hopefully she will get some use out of it.
This also was my first run with the Amphipod, it does take some getting used to having bottles of water strapped on your backside. I was glad I had them but you do feel the weight. The one I have has a little pouch for your car key and gels which is very handy since I rarely have pockets.
All in all, a good day. So glad I got my long run out of the way; so glad it wasn't brutally hot! Now I must go take a shower and think about whether or not I really want to eat that bacon :)
No comments:
Post a Comment