“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.” - Frank A. Clark

Spartan Shape Up, Day 149:

It was a Run day today, BlogLand. WOO! And yes, it was a WOO! I didn't get up early today, to run, like I should have... So, all day at work I promised myself that when I got home, I would strap on the sneakers and get it done. I had a rest day yesterday, and two lazy days in a row (without good excuse! Which there almost never is one...) is just not okay. It's too easy for me to fall into the "well... tomorrow..." trap.

When I got home at 5:30, it was dark. Cold. And I definitely wanted to put my comfy pants on and hang out in my house. HOWEVER. Triumph! I donned my spandex (yep. it's happened.), laced up the shoes and got out the door... In the dark! I elected to not use any music and just listen. And look at the Christmas lights... which turned out to be an unexpected bonus of running at night (which I typically choose not to do...).

I have some more solid running goals now, incidentally. Since I've proven to myself that I can run the whole 5K distance, now it's about improving that and moving forward. Try and get more distance in... but in the absence of distance (like, I didn't really want to be running all around my town at 9pm on a Friday...), I'm going to work on improving my times. My best time so far, over this distance, is 10:32 min/mi at the 5K race last weekend. I've never been able to get under 11min/mi at home, by myself, however. Although, I have also never been able to run the whole thing - until after that race... SO... it's all about growth. Today, I was pretty happy with how things turned out:


Time: 33:22 min
Distance: 3.07 mi
Ave Pace: 10:51 min/mi

UNDER 11 mins, AND I ran it all. It would've been faster (closer to my race pace...) if I didn't have to stop briefly at 2 crosswalks. I am also really happy to report that my first mile was well under 10 minutes - 9:30 or something like that. It is unfortunate that my last mile was pretty slow and brought down the average. I'm getting there, though. That crazy Mental Block was bigger than I ever could know... The achievements I have made in the last week have been bigger steps than I've taken in the last month.  I've been trying to improve my mile time under 11 min for... well... ever. And you all have heard me bitch and moan about not being able to run the whole thing. One race was a real game-changer.

That said, now I need to sleep - it's CrossFit in the morning.  But I'm sleeping (tired!) but happy. I'm feeling proud of myself and accomplished, again. YEAH!