Out of a rut and on with the running!

I know I was really excited about finishing 13 miles last week, and about reaching my fund raising goal, but at the same time, my rut was still kind of continuing. Yes, I finished the 13, but I did it in a time that I was not so happy with. Yes, when I started training I said that my only goal was to finish the marathon and I didn't care how long it took me, but last week was a little on the slow side for me.

Then my mid-week runs started. Oh, where do I begin... Tuesday I was planning on getting up early enough to run my 3 miles before a class that I was going to that morning. Except my alarm didn't go off. Awesome. Well, just run it after class, right? Too bad it was a glorious 90 degree and humid day... So I was forced to run the 3 miles on the wretched treadmill. Terrible.

Then there was Wednesday, when I was supposed to run 7 miles. Another 90 degree and humid day. So I got up, but by the time I got out, it was already in the upper 70's and nice and sunny and humid. (Insert side rant: I'm really starting to get annoyed with the people who respond to me complaining about the hot, humid weather by saying, "Just wait until January! You won't be saying that then!" No, really, I don't think you understand how frustrating it is to have to get up before 5am just to be able to run in decent weather, and even then it's humid. I honestly would rather run in cold and snow. Just had to get that out.) So I ran a whole mile on Wednesday and quit. I attributed it to the weather, but in all honesty, my head just wasn't in it. My day continued downhill from there.

By Thursday I was really not happy about this whole training thing. It was controlling everything. It determined when I went to sleep, when I got up, when and what I ate, how much time I had in my day, and most of all, my emotions. In spite of all this, I attempted the 7 miles again and this time finished it. But oh how wonderful it was was to be up before 5am yet again.

You can imagine how absolutely delighted I was to leave the house at 5:30am on a Saturday morning, already 70 degrees and humid, with 15 miles of running ahead of me. Oh, and a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast. Fantastic. Somehow though, along those magical 15 miles, I found myself climbing out of the rut I had been in. The last few miles were hard, but nothing compared to the last few miles of the 13 miler where I was literally exclaiming, "Who the @%*$# thought training for a marathon was a good idea?!" (To which Marc cautiously responded, "You did?") There was no whining this week, no excruciating pain, and to top it off, as I reached the end, I discovered that I had taken a minute off of my per mile average from last week! I was so happy that I was actually smiling on the car ride home, which rarely happens after a long run! :) I'm not sure that I've ever experienced this so-called "runner's high", but I think I came pretty close today.

Miles this week: 26 miles
Weeks of training finished: 22 weeks
Total miles of training: 332 miles