Are We There Yet?

Today I ran the longest distance of my life. I've never run past 14 miles, but today that all changed.

Since N and I started this DetermiNATION program we have been trying to follow the workout plan they gave us. I usually do my own thing, but decided to give it a try. It was hard to follow since I was also training for Miami Man, but I adapted. Today's training run called for 16 miles.

When I saw that distance I thought to myself that there was no way in hell I'd run the whole thing. I was wrong. I felt great, and not stressed out like I usually am when I'm faced with workout situations I've never faced before. I think I just didn't think about it too much. Not only that, but I avoided looking at my Garmin as much as possible. Don't get me wrong, Garmins are great inventions, but they can also make you a time-Nazi as you constantly look at your wrist to see what the clock says. Sometimes you just need to enjoy the run and not worry about time. Yes, I said that... what has happened to me??

As they dismissed us for the run I kept a slow and steady pace (probably a 6 RPE) and got wrapped up in my music. Which my song of the day definitely has to be "Party in the USA". I actually had to do two loops which kind of sucked since I never like seeing the same scenery more than once. As you make the second loop you feel like that annoying kid in the car who keeps asking: "Are we there yet?" Once you made the second loop you had to go about 2 miles out and hit a turn around to come back. As I got past mile 14 I could feel my body starting to hurt and ache, but I pushed through it. The best part was one of the coaches met up with me at mile 11 and stayed with me the last five miles. I have to say it probably helped me tremendously. She distracted me and kept me motivated; I finished strong.

This training run was definitely a mental victory for me. It confirmed the fact that I could take this marathon on head first. I'm not saying it will be easy, just do-able. My final time ended up being 2:40:49... which ends up being a 10:03 mi/pace. That's absolutely ridiculous and I almost gave myself a pat on the back. Although it was a faster pace than I expected, I wasn't a complete idiot about the run. The pace was comfortable and relaxing.

Tomorrow I'm hoping I can get a relaxing ride in (without clipping in bwahahahaha).