Tuesday Morning Run

I received some much needed support, encouragement and advice this morning from my Tuesday morning run partner, John. I first ran with him last fall - we've recently begun running together again once a week. He lives on the opposite side of town, and we meet halfway at the River Path at an insane time in the morning for 5.5 miles in the chilly pre-dawn darkness. John has been running marathons for, I believe, close to 10 years now, and he was a marathon coach prior to moving to Tucson.

This morning when we started our run, I just unleashed on him. Poor guy! I spent the first good mile just being cranky and venting and throwing out all the fear and discouragement I was feeling. He just listened, and when I finally started running out of steam, reminded me that everyone has bad days (just like you all wrote in the comments to my last post). We discussed training after taking time off, how I need to just build my base mileage and the speed will come later, how I just need to relax regarding the relay.

The run passed by quickly, and I realized I felt much better on this run than Sunday's. By the end, though, I had developed a side stitch (hopping around to demonstrate how Johnny reacted last year after I stepped on a snake and woke it up and scared the hell outta him didn't help the side stitch).

It was a good run, what a relief. (Although still slow. John told me I needed to relax regarding speed. And distance. I guess I just need to relax, period!)

I ended up skipping yoga last night (too cranky) and instead finished a collage I had been working on for months. That felt good. I had three people at work plus Johnny that night ask me if I was okay. It's not like I was projecting crankiness - at least, that's what I thought! Apparently it showed. In the words of a coworker, I wasn't my usual spunky self. (Working on an intense report under major deadline and having Word crash on me twice losing precious work didn't help matters any.) When I relayed that comment to John this morning, his reply was, "Well, you not being your usual spunky self is still spunkier than most people!" I laughed at that.

I've got kids yoga today with Ash, hatha flow tonight, three miles tomorrow morning, basic hatha Thursday night, three miles Friday morning, three miles Saturday morning and another seven on Sunday morning. Now I have to make sure I don't drink too much green beer Saturday night, and I need to properly take care of myself so I don't burn out on Sunday again. Reviewing my schedule for the week, I feel a little overwhelmed, especially with crazy work, so we'll see how much of that I actually do!

Quick note - I've been training with the PowerBar hydrating/recovery/fueling system, and I'm surprised at how well it seems to be working. I'm enjoying the Harvest Bars and the Endurance drink, and today - since I was out of milk for chocolate milk - I used the Recovery drink (it had protein in it). I really liked the taste, and it felt good going down. We'll see things continue.