Making Strides

Ahhhh... I love all things fall.  I know I am not in the minority at all in saying this but I just thought I would let it be known that I am part of the fall craze.  I just love it!  Now let me clarify... there aren't exactly seasons in Florida.  But whatever it is we're getting right now: LOVE it! 

It was pretty rainy here the first couple days this week.  I skipped stadiums on Monday and Wednesday because of the rain.  Long story but it mostly comes down to the fact that my long run last Sunday messed up a good portion of my week.  Not that I didn't get anything accomplished this week because I did, but I didn't do what I planned to do. 

On Monday I was not fully recovered from my Sunday run and it was rainy and I didn't feel like dealing with slippery stadium steps so instead my sister suggested that we hit up the gym.  I don't have a gym membership but she works at the gym so I got in for free.  Now, there are several reasons that I don't have a gym membership.  Numero uno: $.  I just don't have that kind of money.  I've had free access to the gym at UF for more than 4 years now and have only used it a hand full of times.  I just can't see myself really using it that much and if I'm going to PAY for it and not use it... well that's a problem. 

Probably the main reason why I don't use the gym: I feel super awkward on gym machines.  I just can't figure them out and while I'm trying to figure them out I feel like everyone in the gym is watching me make a complete idiot out of myself.  I really just enjoy my home gym and running outside.  I just can't stand treadmills.  I know I keep going on all these tangents but that reminded me of something I read the other day.  I read that you should train for a marathon on a treadmill.  I can't even imagine running on a treadmill for more than 30 minutes.  Even 30 minutes is difficult.  They suggested popping in a movie and said that "the time would fly by"... don't know how I feel about that statement but I guess if it rained for like a straight week then I would be wishing I had a gym membership.

But now back to my week.  I had worked chest/shoulders/triceps earlier in the day via P90X so I skipped all the upper body machines and did some killer leg exercises.  I usually think I have pretty strong legs.  I dance, I run and I do leg strengthening exercises on a regular basis.  Um... well I sucked at the leg machines.  My sister kept having to decrease the weights for me because I couldn't move the machines at all.  It was pretty embarrassing.  I'm going to go with "the machines work different muscles than all of the other things I'm doing".  Yeah, that's it.

On top of being awful at the gym, on Tuesday I was pretty sore.  I wanted to go on a longer run on Tuesday but with being sore and then running in the evening I ended up just keeping it to 3 miles. 

Wednesday I was still sore.  I don't even know what I was sore from at this point.  Still recovering from the Sunday run?  The gym?  My run on Tuesday?  Who knows but I was definitely still sore.  Stadiums didn't happen and instead I pretty much sat in bed all day.  Wednesday is my day off and this Wednesday I learned that I should not have days off.  I should have done all the chores that I have been slacking on because I'm never home (ie. changing sheets, cleaning my room, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, laundry, etc, etc) but instead I just sat in my bed playing on the computer.  I felt horrible by the end of the day and kicked it into gear some.

Thursday it was a little overcast but it was cool!  Oh my gosh, can I just say, I can do anything about 10x better when it is cool outside.  GORGEOUS!  I went for my 6ish mile run.  It drizzled on and off during most of the run and I kept worrying about my ipod and wishing that I had put it in a ziplock bag.  It never out and out rained though so my ipod was safe but now i know for future runs.

Friday I pulled myself out of bed bright and early and ran stadiums by myself.  I think this is pretty dangerous so I try to always have someone with me even though I really like to go by myself.  When I got there it was still dark out.  It was crisp and cool outside and beautiful.  The moon was out and the stars were pretty bright.  The stadium was deserted which was strange because the past few times I've been there various sports teams are usually there taking up half of the stadium.  It was nice to have the whole stadium to myself.  I ran with my headphones off so I could hear if anyone was approaching but also because it was so beautiful outside that I just wanted to be able to take it all in.

Saturday I ran and I ran and I ran.  Again, GORGEOUS weather.  I ended up running 13.1 and dubbed this run my mock marathon.  It went really well actually.  I still don't have my fuel belt and I didn't take any GU with me but I'm still rocking the runs.  This gives me a lot of hope, I feel like once I do go on a run with gatorade and water and GU I will absolutely KILL the runs.  I sure hope so. 

I was so excited to finish the 13.1 miles that I decided to compare my time with average half-marathon times for other females my age.  Well, lets just say that it was a little disheartening.  I guess I'm going to have to work on my time a little.  I'm kind of guessing on my time because I walked a warm up lap and then came in and changed and did a few other things while I had my watch running but I think I'm probably at about 2 hours and 15 minutes.  This is pretty average to below average.  It is just INSANE that people are running these things in less than 2 hours. 

A friend of mine is running the Disney marathon in January and has been trying to convince me to run it as well.  I feel like I am not prepared and do not have enough time to prepare but apparently I'm ahead of her training-wise.  She finally convinced me to take the plunge and I'll be signing up later today.  Part of me is really excited about this and the other part of me is extremely nervous.  As I continue training and am hopefully able to increase the distance of my long runs then I think I'll start to get less nervous.  It just seems impossible to me right now to be able to run twice as much as what I ran yesterday.  Ahh!  Crazy.  I know I can do it though. 

Is there anything that you have thought would be impossible and then you conquered it anyways?  Tell me about it!