A "short" three mile run.

I ran day one of week two of the training plan last night. Since it was family dinner night, my husband took the toddler over to his parents and I did my run before joining them. 

I plugged into my laptop so I could watch some bad tv while I ran, and had my arm band with my phone running the nike+app to track my pace and distance. I was a little nervous for this run, seeing as 3 miles used to be a very long run for me. Having it as my "short" run this week made me a little nervous. I kept telling myself that if I really felt awful, I could stop after two miles and just repeat week one again. I settled into the run and was feeling ok, but around 2 miles I started feeling it. I think it was mostly mental, because after I argued myself out of stopping, and powered through that last mile, I felt alright. I wasn't totally burnt out, only a little tired, and I'm feeling fine today.  I spent some time playing with my speed during the run, mostly because I was bored (maybe I need a new show to watch.) It'll be interesting to see what my speed is like the next time I get outside for a run.

I'm still a little worried about how this week will play out, I have a four mile run tomorrow (yikes!) and then a five (!!!) mile run on sunday. Five miles is the furthest I have ever run at one time, and like i've said before, it totally knocked me on my butt. True, I hadn't trained properly for the distance (or the massively, punishingly hilly course,) and it was really hot and humid on race day, but still, that distance put me out of it for not just the rest of that day, but a few days afterwards. I'm really hoping to avoid having anything like that happen again. 

I'm going to try to keep the same attitude with the rest of the runs this week that I had with the run last night: If it starts to get too awful, cut it short. I can redo this week next week. 

I like that what was an almost impossible distance when I started training last winter (3 miles) was fairly easy today. I realize that's not amazing progress to most runners, but I'm happy with it. Especially after the breakdown in training I had late this summer, where I was really close to just giving up on running all together.

I am confident that if I keep myself training, I will meet my tentative goals of besting my race times from last year easily.

I also really liked being able to run without worrying about the time crunch of getting to my in-laws for dinner. I think having my husband take off before me will be a weekly thing, especially as the runs get longer and I need more time for them. 

The longer I follow this training plan, and the more confident I get with my running, the crazier my "possible goals" get. Should I try for a half? What about a full? There are some really fun sounding races out there I want to do too...color runs, cosmic runs, warrior dashes...

I keep telling myself to wait and see where I am after the new year. I give myself permission to start signing up for races after January 1st, depending on how I'm running then.