I'm Happy

Yesterday was the day I'd scheduled my long run.  Last week I ran over 8 km (5.15 mi), and I was hoping to reach about 9 km this week.  Of course, I had an unspoken goal of keeping my pace at 7 min/km, but if I didn't reach that this week then I knew I still had 2 weeks of training to take care of things.  This week, however, things played out differently than planned.

Last week I had planned my route.  I'd gone to Google pedometer and measured where 8km would take me, and then I ran that.  This week, for some reason I didn't.  This week I decided to just run until I felt like turning around.  I told myself that I couldn't look at my Garmin to determine distance or pace.  I just had to run, and I could speed up or slow down as my body told me. 

Here are the results:

For those of you who may be having trouble reading this.  I ran exactly 10.0 km, and my pace was 6:52 min/km...exactly my goal two weeks ahead of schedule.

Now then, I'll be honest with you.  I did end up looking at my Garmin.  When I was nearing the end of my run, and I was really starting to feel tired, and I wanted to stop, I checked the Garmin.  I just wanted to know how far I'd gone.  When I saw that that I had already gone 8.75 km I put a knew mantra in my head: Just finish it.  Just finish it.  You can do.  Just finish it.

So, with the Monument Ave 10k (my first OFFICIAL 10k) only two weeks away I have already reached my initial goal; to finish a 10k without stopping and under 70 minutes (I may not be fast, but I'm lapping everyone sitting on the couch).  Now I have two extra weeks to surpass my goal.  In two weeks I will be a little faster.  I may not win any medals, but I'll have won a victory in my mind, and that's all that really matters.

Oh, and as for Cody?  He was with me every step of the way.  He slept quite well yesterday too.  As a reward to both of us, I let us sleep in this morning (well, we went back to bed after taking care of the other dogs).  It's amazing what 3 extra hours of sleep can do for one's well-being!  I'm happy today.  That's all there is to it.