It’s hard to believe that tomorrow begins week thirteen of training-over half way to race day! It’s just as hard to believe that it’s been four weeks since I last wrote. A lot has happened while simultaneously not much has happened. Instead of boring you with the details of the two handfuls of runs that have passed in the last four weeks, I’ll spare you and just highlight the notables. 😇
Week 9 was a busy week. Monday started bright and early at 5:15am with a nice 3.5 miles outside before a busy day at the office and women’s league volleyball afterwards! My highlight was definitely playing volleyball again. 🤩Boy did it feel great to get back out on the court-and with a pretty good team, too! But, wow was I sore!!! I could hardly sit up out of bed the next morning lol. Talk about starting to feel yourself getting older…my 17 year old self would be embarrassed hahaha. 🥴
From Tuesday to Saturday the days blurred together with lots of lunchtime walks and after work walks, not a whole lot of running miles. I also drove back home for a long Easter weekend, so I guess I’ll blame that for my lack of commitment to the training for the rest of the week. BUT, on Saturday (yes, the day before Easter), Bobby so graciously joined me as we ran out of my driveway and across our small town to the lake. We not only ran the lake trail, but proceeded to zig zag our way back across town towards my house to hit our 7 mile mark! 😜A personal best in distance for me, wohoo!! We timed it out pretty perfectly too, my mom went for a walk and our paths crossed just as we hit mile 7. Honestly, besides the sunburn that unexpectedly happened while spending over an hour running outside, my body didn’t feel all that bad afterwards.
Week 10 was another “ramp up” week as far as long runs go. Tuesday was a chill 3.2 miles before working from home. I took another trip to Sleepy Eye to get my 1st dose of the vaccine!! So, I found joy in being able to participate in a late night run through my hometown streets. Something I didn’t realized I missed I guess😌. In uptown, you wouldn’t be very smart to head out for a late night run in the dark. In Sleepy Eye though, no problem at all. It was misting a little that night too, but it was just little enough to feel pleasant and not be an annoyance. Although I didn’t feel like zig zagging around to track a few miles, I felt that a “speed” workout would benefit me in the long run anyways. So, I did .10 intervals for a mile or so running anywhere from an eight minute mile to a nine-thirty interval. Saturday morning we drove to Medicine Lake to run their 8.1 mile trail since we needed to run 8, this seemed like the perfect spot!
****Insert Meltdown***
For starters, I was not in a great headspace that morning. My whole morning routine felt off for some reason, and I just was dreading the run MORE than usual, which I didn’t even think was possible for me lol. Anyways, we started running clockwise around the lake from where we parked and got just about a mile in when we started to embark on a series of hills…or bumps, or whatever you call a decent incline along a trail. Well, we did the first one…then the second one…then the third one, and all I could see ahead was a continuation of this hill pattern. NO THANK YOU🤨. Me, being my sassy running self, put the running to a hault right then and there. We decided to walk until we found a spot where it flattened out. Well guess what? after 2 miles of walking that never happened. Now, by that point in time I was absolutely enraged. I was so frustrated and anxious and upset. For stupid reasons? Of course. But, at the time it was a really big defeat for me. When I have a long run on the schedule, that means I have a long run on the schedule. That day, at Medicine Lake, it felt like I was completely derailed and would never recover. Thankfully we saw some good friends that night to help lift my spirits lol. What a drama queen, right?? ——🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Sunday morning I was filled with lots of warm fuzzies at a bridal shower for a dear relative and friend. 💐I’m not sure if it was the combination of seeing family members or just my mom’s pep talk, but driving home from the bridal shower (after consuming nothing but sweets and pastries), somehow I walked into our apartment and decided that at 4pm on Sunday, April 11th we were going to run 8 miles. Just like that. And….that’s exactly what we did. We hopped on a new path right by our place called the Cedar Lake Trail and ran a mighty 8 miles. Another personal record for me!! Was it painful? ABSOLUTELY. Was it hard? ABSOLUTLEY. But somehow on that Sunday night, unlike the previous morning, I had the mental grit to stick to it and we got it done! I will admit, afterwards I felt like a complete trainwreck. It’s amazing how quickly your body stiffens up after such an exertion.😳
Week 11 was nothing special. If anything, it was a week of low mileage. A few short runs (1-2 miles) scattered throughout the week and a Saturday long run of 6 miles. Since it wasn’t something new I wasn’t super worried about it. Although even though I’ve ran that far a few times, it is still very difficult! It was a beautiful morning for it and we ran right off of one of our great friends’ farm in Hastings straight onto a path that was very pleasant for our mileage that day. A rather simple week, and a week that didn’t trigger any emotional responses from the inner drama queen lol.🙈
Week 12 was wild-this week!! Honestly, I’m skipping over the short runs because they were not what they were supposed to be anyways; however, I did work in some more cross training which I need to keep up for sure. My quads need all the help they can get lol. But, getting to the good stuff: yesterday we did 9 miles!!! Yes, 9 miles!!! Fricken awesome right?!?! 🎉I still can’t believe we (I) did it! Our original plan was to run around the Minneapolis chain of lakes, but once we went around Bde Maka Ska once, I felt like we were in too much of a rythym to move to a different lake, so we proceeded to run the lake twice more lol. It was quite a run. A slower long run than we’ve had up to this point, but I’m not super surprised by that because it isn’t my goal to run fast, my goal is just to run. It’s weird how your mind goes through such phases while on a long run, well atleast mine does. Like for the first few miles every bit of energy is just foccussed on not stopping and getting through the uncomfortableness of the first mile or so. Then it shifts during the first half of the middle miles (2-4) to more of a peaceful mindest of “you have a long way to go so you might as well settle in and try to find a rythym”. Then for me, at about mile 5 and 6, I start to crumble and get inside my own head. “You’re only over halfway just a little” “you still have 4 miles to run” “just stop now and run them later”….oh how the brain works in mysterious ways. Normally, we don’t run with headphones, but once we hit mile 6 I needed a little help from some music therapy. Then, once we FINALLY hit mile 7, I felt more in control of myself because we only had 2 miles left. I know I can run 2 miles, right? Right. But wow those last two miles were tough. Like ouch tough. When we finally hit mile 9 I felt like my knees were about to fall off of my body. 😟So much pain. But it felt so good to accomplish another personal best! It’s a feeling that has now become an expectation I place on myself. At the beginning of training I would let myself just stop if I “didn’t feel like going”. Now, now that I know I am capable of 6, 7, 8, 9 miles without stopping, I have the expectation of myself to do the next and the next and the next.
To celebrate we found an absolute GEM of a restaurant a little over 5 minutes from our apartment: Hola Arepa. AMAZING Latin food. 😍We were and still are obsessed. It is the equivalent of our love for Darbar-the Indian grill but for Latin food. The cutest vibe, the best staff, and absolute amazing food. You need to go!!
This week backs off to a long run of 7 but then lunges ahead to 10 the following week-we’re almost in double digit territory!!!
It’s become something I crave now, and I don’t feel like myself when I skip a day or don’t run for a few days. It’s a wild journey and it only keeps surprising me.
Heading into week 13 feeling hopeful about getting to mile 13 (see what I did there😉?)
Have a great week!
Xoxo
Jos
Josie's Journey 