Sometimes It's A Grind

It can be easy to assume that a person that has been running consistently for 23 years sails through most of their runs, adds miles easily, and finishes every workout with a smile.  I can tell you with certainty that it isn't true for me.  At least right now. 

As you may have read in earlier posts of mine, I was approaching this training plan with a different mindset and decided to truly let my body rest and fully repair before I started logging miles again to prepare for 2014.  I purposely let myself get out of shape so that when I started running again my body would stay healthy since it had ample time to heal up from all the wear and tear of the year.  I still think it's a great game plan, but WOW - does getting back into shape blow sometimes. 

Ever since I have been running distance things always feel like a grind until I get to the point that I'm comfortably running ten milers.  Then I can add miles with ease, my soreness is minimal, and I enjoy my workouts a lot more.  Today I did a 'long' run of seven miles and it was honestly tough.  A big part of that was the footing I was running on - It's a balmy 39° in southern Wisconsin today so of course I headed outside to log the miles, not really mentally preparing myself to sill have an ample amount of slop and snow to trudge through. 

I accept that I am where I should be right now - I shouldn't be fast, I shouldn't be effortlessly running 12 milers, I'm right where I need to be - rebuilding. Though it is hard to think back to past times when I could have done a 20 miler in today's conditions and still felt just fine.  It's a continuous cycle for us runners - we're always in states of building, maintaining, peaking, or resting due to us choosing to rest, or our bodies deciding for us.  I'm happy I'm re-building after consciously choosing to rest, but WOW - it schooled me today. 

I ran for the second time with my new GPS watch (the NikePlus - thank you wonderful boyfriend!) and I was surprised that I still managed to average close to 8:30 miles with the conditions, but it felt more like ten minute miles.  I intended to stop and take some pictures to share since it was absolutely gorgeous out there, but I was very well aware that if I stopped much I'd lose my gusto much more quickly. I did manage to stop and get a couple great pictures of people ice skating on a pond I ran past - it was very Normal Rockwell!