Nothing Like the Real Thing

Soooo, the Halloween weekend was rough on my training schedule. Which in turn was rough on my body!
I had a great weekend with my kids and my SIL and her kids. We had a lot of fun! With that fun I consumed pizza, french fries, a cheese burger, ice cream, and close to my own body weight in candy!

I also skipped my Friday/Saturday runs due to our packed schedule. The combination was just brutal on me this afternoon as I jumped back into my running shoes!

If I learned one thing today it was get out on the pavement sooner rather than later! If I learned anything else, I learned not to skip training runs AND consume everything in sight! The two make for a miserable run after the fact!

About my Run

From the moment I woke up my run was endanger of being cancelled due to the sounds of congested, sick children. Jared (my hubs) suggested I run along side my daughter as she rode her bike to school. I expressed my concern that she wouldn't be able to keep up with me, she being five and just learned to ride without her training wheels a month ago. However, I didn't want to miss my run for the day (the longer I stay grounded the harded it is to get back to it) so I agreed to give it a shot.
Much to my surprise, not only did my five year old keep up, she sweetly paused at intervals to turn around and gesture to me with a small wave of her hand to hurry up.
Not exactly how I pictured my first road performance of my training season. Panting, aching and just plain miserable with a pinch of taunting every step of the way!

To make matters worse, I stopped at the school to check my Nike+ stats. When I glanced down I only took note of my pace, which read 15.56min/mi.

!!!!!WHAT!!!!!

I just about stopped right there, I just keep thinking, "Man! No way I can be ready by Feburary! How can I be running this slow?".
Now I was feeling the inadaquicy of both my knees and my motivation. The pounding impact on the pavement seemed to jar everything from the ground up including my confidence. I couldn't shake the number 15 from my head, it was as taunting as the innocent villian I struggled to catch! My thoughts kept returning to the past two weeks of training I did on the treadmill. No way could I be this slow! I can trust the mill to tell me the truth -can't I?! I was running at just over 11min/mi just the other day, could running outside really be THIS much harder?

As I allowed my thoughts to destroy all traces of enjoyment from my run, my pace slowed and I found myself walking. WALKING!!!!

I was beaten. Atleast I felt I was.

However, I have an uncanny ability to tap into my inner motivational speaker, which gave a small amount of silent encouragment.

I picked up the pace just a bit and just asked of my knees to get me home...and they did.

And, to my surprise, as I approached the end of my tourment I learned a small piece of infromation that would have been helpful about 20 minutes previous.
Nike+ keeps your overall AND your CURRENT pace. So after all of that, after the worse mental run ever, after all the head games... I had misunderstood the meaning of 15:56min/mi. I suppose I learned so much more about myself than I would have had I not realized it to begin with.

So here's a tip about your Nike+ incase you're as bright as I am... Don't stop to check your pace during your run, just push the button!
When all was said and done I had actually ran 2.55mi at a 11:56min/mi pace. Not bad for a miss guided head case such as I!

So overall, this tells me a few things that I wish to impart to whoever may still be reading this nonsense.
Get on the road as soon as you can, the earlier you train on a hard surface the sooner you will get use to it. Treadmills by design propel you along at a steady pace and work different muscles than road running. They are great for developing strength, endurance and hill training. Don't expect to do the majority of your training on the mill as it cannot fully prepare you for your event.

In short... There's nothing like the real thing baby!

Happy Training!