End of Week 2

Yesterday I rode OUTSIDE for the first time this year. I rode for 2 hours out to Cherry Creek Reservoir, around a few times and back. I even got a tan! Woop woop! Then today, the weather took a drastic turn. When I looked outside to my surprise... SNOW! Not just light snow either. This was the thick, heavy, wet snow that is not fun to run in. I went out anyway, planning on running for 1 hour.

A typical run looks something like this:

From my house, 1 loop around Wash Park, back home: 4.5 miles, 37 minutes. Or... 2 laps around Wash Park: 7 miles, under an hour. Or... 3 laps around Wash Park: 9.5 miles, 1 hr. 15 minutes. These runs aren't fast. They're steady and even at marathon pace.

My planned run for the day was 8 miles, 2+ laps, no problem. Around mile 3, I started to feel awful. I was soaking wet, my stomach hurt, nose running, legs tired from riding yesterday, totally wanting to turn around and head home. Plus- I was literally the only soul running at the park. The snow/rain/mud had kept all sane people indoors. I had pretty much convinced myself that I could make-up the long run later in the week, that maybe today was just not the day, until it hit me: Is this what I'm going to do on race day? Am I going to give-up when I start to feel the slightest bit uncomfortable? No! I'm going to stick my middle finger up to Quitting and say, "screw you, Quitting. I'm finishing what I set out to do". So, with that, I finished my long run, feeling strong.

I have to constantly remind myself of my goals. This is NOT going to be easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it. I'm waging war with negative thoughts and I am very determined to win.

Back to the pool in the morning. The lifeguard knows me by name; I think this means I'm making progress. :)