“Fall in love with the process, and the results will come”- Eric Thomas
Looking back on week 4 seems like Monday was an eternity ago.
Monday and Wednesday’s runs were both deemed 2.5 milers. At this point in my training, I know dang well that I am capable of running 2.5 miles, so heading into the week I was feeling pretty confident about the mileage ahead of me.
Monday, similar to last week, was a 9:30pm evening run inside on the treadmill. At a nice and steady treadmill based pace, I had no problems keeping my attention tuned into David and Alexis’ disputes on the screen in front of me (I was watching Schitt’s Creek) which made the 2.5 miles slide under my feet without too much abnormal discomfort.
After the completion of Monday’s run, Wednesday should have mirrored the success of Monday-but, with a little elevated difficulty running at the “moderate” pace. Wednesday was also the first warm-enough day outside to dust off the outdoor running shoes and bundle up for an outdoor run! Should’ve been exciting enough to give me an extra boost to push through the 2.5 a little faster than Monday, or atleast that’s what I was expecting. Unfortunately, my mind had other plans. After hitting the one mile mark, my mental toughness took a dive and starting drowning me in the discouraging thoughts of “omg. how was that only one mile”, “I’m not even half way done yet”, “my legs are already tired”, “I don’t think I wore enough layers”, “I’m not going to be able to make it the whole way”. I could only fight them off for another .2 of a mile until putting a stop to the pitter patter of my rhythm. This was frustrating for me as it was the first run this round of training that I have let myself stop before the mileage is complete. A downer for sure. After feeling sulk-ish and dreading the 1.25 miles I still had remaining, Bobby and I decided that for the remainder of the distance, we would run faster intervals to try and make up for the loss of a non-stop moderate pace. We clipped along, might I add: my “clipping along” is a mere 9:30/mile pace so not nearly a “clipping” speed at all haha. But, we clipped along for about two minutes at a time with a two minute walk in between until we rounded the lake to head back towards home. Wednesday’s run was my first disappointing run so far this training period.
After my unsuccessful 2.5 miler on Wednesday, I was quite fearful of how my mental stamina would show-up for my 4 mile assignment on Saturday. If I’m being honest with myself, I had a feeling that the 4 miles on Saturday would turn into another interval run…..and I really didn’t want it to.
Saturday morning brought beautiful sunshine and the first burst of warm, spring-like air of the year, truly a perfect day for an outdoor run. We set out after breakfast and decided that we would run the lake trail around Bde Maka Ska which is just about 4 miles around the outer path. Knowing that Wednesday was unsuccessful, we paced ourselves to start out quite slow at something around an 11:15/11:30 minute mile. I knew I wasn’t even giving myself a chance to run the four miles non-stop if I didn’t keep a slow pace. Mile one went by pretty quickly actually because I was just so in love with the warm air that I didn’t focus much on the task ahead. Mile two went by a little less quickly, but still rather easily because of all of the distractions on the trail- dogs frolicking like in the movies, people on the ice Nordic skiing, people around us on the trails walking, biking, and pushing little kiddos-it was a nice distraction! I remember looking down at my watch and seeing 3.2 miles as the distance we had ran. I vividly remember my mindset wanting to sink down into ” you’re tired, take a break, just stop and walk”, but I also remember thinking about how disappointed I felt after Wednesday and channeling that energy into keeping my feet moving underneath me. In fact, I actually made myself physically smile. You know how they say that when you physically smile it can actually make you feel happier? Well, the same is true when it comes to running for me. That smile was enough to help me turn my mental thoughts into “you can do this”, “just finish it out, you’re so close”, “you’ll feel so much better if you complete all four” for the remainder of the four miles. Although the last half mile was not easy by any means, rather it was quite a challenge to keep going. I had to work hard to keep myself going physically and to keep myself on a positive note mentally. It felt SO DANG GOOD!! As we walked to cool down and bring our heart rates down, I couldn’t help but feel proud of myself. With the warm air and the sunshine still beaming down, I think I had a bit of a transformation in the way I’ll think about training going forward. While there’s still many more miles to accomplish in order to get to 13.1, hitting mile 4 was a great accomplishment for me. While I could still be just thinking on the high of our successful run, I’m hopeful that going forward I will be able to love the process more than I have in the past. Being able to let myself feel the discomfort and enjoy it knowing that I will come out on the other side feeling much better—while this mindset might not last long, I’m hopeful that I can keep it in check for a little while at least!!
With all the running and walking I’ve put my lil’ footsies through lately, I’ve noticed the roughness forming around my heel and even on the bottom’s of some of my toes. So, for any fellow runner friends with the same problem, or anyone with rough and scratchy feet really, I want to share my FAVORITE foot cream with you!! I bought it back in November knowing that in the winter my feet dry out, but didn’t start using it until a few weeks ago. I put it on every night before bed, and WOW, my feet are as soft as a baby’s but now!! Like seriously, it has made a HUGE difference! And the best part? Unlike any of the other foot creams I’ve tried, this one doesn’t smell like “foot cream” haha. It is a very pleasant minty lavender. I’ve linked it here for you to check out or have it shipped right to your door 🙂 https://atozinnia.com/shop-all/p/sonoma-lavender-co-foot-balm?rq=lavender
The transformation of my reptile feet wasn’t the only transformation that took place this week! Our apartment received a makeover from winter décor to spring décor! It’s sure feeling light and fresh in our little 640 square feet 🙂 I’m a sucker for seasonal decorating, so the change of season’s always brings new excitement for me.
I also made a new recipe that was quite a hit!! From the Pioneer Woman Cookbook, Cheesy Cauliflower soup! It’s a completely homemade soup, a little time consuming, but seriously SO YUMMY. Especially if you have fresh parsley on hand! No pictures to prove it’s deliciousness, but an entire gallon kettle was gone within 24 hours between two people if that says anything about it. Annnnd I’ve put the recipe pics below, this is one of the VERY FEW times I’ve actually followed a recipe exactly the way it’s spelled out because we actually had all of the ingredients it called for :).
That’s all for now, have a happy week ahead!!
xoxo
Jos
Josie's Journey 