Five Alive

Today's Running Goal: 4.5 miles or 5 miles
Accomplished: 5 miles in 1:02:30 (12:30 miles)
Technically I never did the 4.5 mile run because that was when I was sick last week. So I told myself that I could do that. However, this week should really be my 5 miles week and I figured once you run 4.5 why not just keep going? So after watching Marika, and Brandy, and Susan (my 42 year old co-worker who is in no better shape than me but has runs all the time) run the half-marathon this morning, I headed over to my mom's house to put my own running to the test. Hannah and I did a 2.5 mile lap around my mom's neighborhood and then I dropped her off at home and did another 2.5 mile lap around. The second lap was easier and I am not sure if it was because I was already in the midst of it and knew it was all downhill from there, or if running with Hannah is actually more stressful. She did a lot of stopping and sniffing today, which really gets in the way of my rhythm and at one point she darted across the sidewalk to a fire-hydrant and I almost tripped over her, which really hurt my knee. At about the 3.7 mile mark I was thinking: shoot, I can do all six miles today, because I was in a really good place, and only had a little over a mile to go. But that last mile was tough and when I was done with that, I couldn't go another step. But yay, I did it! Next week I plan to attempt the actual six mile run. Then I will have three weeks to better my time, get more comfortable doing six miles, test the actual race course and perhaps even go seven miles once, so the six seems less!

That leaves me at 6 hours of workout time this week. Not too bad for taking the first two days of the week off because I was still ill. I still can't breathe perfectly, but I guess I am back to good. And I am better than ever because I can now say that I ran five miles. For some reason I am not as proud of the five miles as I am the four. That three miles slump was just so hard to get over for me that four miles was this huge accomplishment. Now five miles just seems like a little more. Besides I watched people run 26.2 today. They are inspiring!