Yup, some days the hardest thing about a run is just leaving the house. Today certainly qualified. With a house full of 6-7 year old boys who slept only from 11 pm - 4:30 am, I was left tired and depleted. It didn't help that I had the beginnings of a chest cold. The scheduled workout was a ladder - mile, 1200, 800, 400, 400, 800, 1200, mile. I had goal times to hit and nothing motivates me more than a quantitative milestone.
I got to the track and started my warmup, then headed into my first mile. The data fields on my watch were not set up to give me the right information - I needed lap time, lap distance, but they were set to overall time and distance, and I had started my watch on my warmup. Without any guiding information I figured I'd just better haul, because I was not going to run that mile over, nor would I chance missing the target time. Even as distracted as I was, I logged a 6:10 pace for a mile. I think that was a first. I continued strong through the ladder, but the final mile was closer to 7:00 than 6:00!
I ran half of an 800 with a flapping shoelace, also not wanting to stop and having to redo it. I ran a 1200 with my watch set to "off" and did have to re-run that. That left me a bit deflated, but when events conspire against me, I take that as a test of my commitment. I won't shrink from that.
I'm definitely running faster and stronger. The amazing thing is that the journey to faster and stronger has been gradual and fun and gratifying. I think we often believe that to make gains it has to be terribly difficult and overwhelming. Not so!
I'm glad I took that first step out of the house. Otherwise I may have missed this opportunity to show myself what I can do!
