Today is my seventh straight day of running. As you know I had to change plans in my running this week(see previous post if you care to read why)
Today was my hardest run I have ever had to complete up to this date. I was reminded of a quote I posted earlier in the week:(this post was the 1st in my new series titled, Getting It Done)
“Adversity is usually a prerequisite to great things.”
Today I met diversity. I had to knock out 12 miles today. I ate my regular breakfast, but I don’t think it was enough for what I needed for the run. I did not get out until mid morning and it was a little warm out this morning with the sun bright and shining. I felt fine for the first few miles actually not even looking at my watch until the 4.5 mile mark. At this point I thought, “Alright, I got this. This will be another great run after the amazing run yesterday.”
By mile 6 everything changed. My mental strength was lost. My stamina ran away. My legs started to fill with cement and my stomach was killing me. At this moment in time I had two decisions
1. Use these as excuses in addition to running 7 straight days and call it a day
2. Suck it up, learn to fight through this and finish this run and be a place where you want to be.
I thought about this long and hard. I remembered the quote above. I remembered how frustrated I was last time I did not follow through with my goal and training. I remembered all my posts on this blog and my new series Getting It Done. I knew I had to do this for myself and to hopefully be an inspiration for others to accomplish their goals.
I fought tooth and nail(what is the history of this phrase anyways?) to finish the last 6 miles. Every step my body continued to go downhill. However, after getting to mile 10 I knew it was all good and time to finish the run up.
At the 11.5 mile mark with the end so close my quads locked up. They were fried. Not sure if I was just out of fluids, energy, soreness, fatigue, or probably everything mentioned, but they were hurting something fierce. So, I just counted my steps and fought to the finish.
When I finished I was so glad I did not quit. I was able to accomplish this goal. Once again realizing that we are capable of so much more when we actually push through the adversity. Our brain is wired to tell us to stop as precaution. However, our bodies can do so much more. We as humans do not give ourselves a chance to realize our limits because we always pull up way too early in adversity.
I did it. You can too.
Don’t stop trying hard to Getting It Done!
And yes, I have a recovery run tomorrow of 3 miles and then two maybe three days off of no running to allow my joints and legs to recover. They have stood this nice little stretch of running.
I ran the 12 miles in 1:45 which is a 8:45 mile pace. I spent from mile 8 on with my heart rate in zone 4 of an average rate of 162 or higher.
Mile 1: 8:38
Mile 2: 8:24
Mile 3: 8:19
Mile 4: 8:27
Mile 5: 8:48
Mile 6: 8:53
Mile 7: 8:48
Mile 8: 8:59
Mile 9: 9:06
Mile 10: 9:03
Mile 11: 8:57
Mile 12: 8:43
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