One Week to Go!

The Shamrock Shuffle is one week from today. The bad news is they are talking snow for next weekend, which gives me horrible flashbacks to last year. Last year we ran in the middle of a blizzard and it was the worst experience ever. The good news is I feel prepared. I am not as prepared as I could have been, but I am prepared. The reason why I say that is because the past month I pretty much left the running to the weekends. I had a whole training schedule written up and kept to the weekend schedule, but completely blew off running Monday through Friday on most weeks.

I wanted to run 5 miles this weekend, which is the distance of the Shuffle. I usually run on Saturdays, but completely blew it off yesterday. Today I spent all afternoon in a baby shower. By the time I got home it was too late to go to the gym (they close at 5:00 on Sundays). I knew that if I didn't run today, I would be mad at myself all week, so when I got home I said screw it and went for a five mile outdoors and it took me 1:14, which is about right for me. Last year because of the snow my time was a slow 1:23 and the year before that it was 1:11.

Today was the first time I have run outdoors since last summer. Usually I would say I prefer running indoors (temp and conditions are controlled and the only people watching you are the people doing the same thing), but I don't think that is the case any more. First, running outdoors seemed to go much faster today than running indoors. I usually do Galloway Running, but because I no longer have a proper watch, I was running on feeling today. I would run until I could no longer take it and then walk for a little bit. I found this worked great. It turned into a game. I would tell myself to run to a certain tree and when I got there I'd tell myself to keep going to the next tree or the next street, etc. I ended up running for longer intervals than I probably would have on the treadmill. I also found my walking breaks were shorter too. Often, I'd only be walking for a few seconds and then pick it up again. I also didn't look at my cell phone until I got back to my car. I guess what I am saying is I just enjoyed my run and wasn't a slave to a clock, which made it more enjoyable. Secondly, I notice that my muscles are a lot more tense when running on a treadmill. Maybe because I have terrible balance and always feel like I am falling off. Anywho, after today I think I will try running outdoors more often.

Next Sunday is the big day. I plan on going out to Chicago on Saturday, so my sister and I can go to Navy Pier to pick up our packets and stay out there until Sunday or Monday. Until then...

Happy Running!
Sally