Never sorry when you go, example 1342

Yesterday, I was just feeling lazy. Not tired, not sore, just lazy. It may have been coming down off the high of a really great weekend with The Captain in Vancouver, BC. (I will sheepishly note that this really great weekend didn't include much running despite there being a beautiful loop)

 

So yesterday I was refreshed and downright perky the whole day, and then I got home. It was a surprisingly sunny evening and relatively warm; a perfect night to get in my long run. The plan was to hit the road at 6pm and do 1hr out before turnaround with a goal of 12 miles. But since I didn't finish up at work until 6pm this plan went out the window. The rebound plan? Eat string cheese and stare at dirty laundry (willing it clean) all the while making a back-up run plan.

Just for the record when I deviate from my plan and am forced to make a new one it often goes like this:

Time	Thought
6:30	I'll still be able to get in 1.5hr if I leave at 7, yep, I'll go at 7
7:05	OK, no prob. I'll still be able to get in 1hr if I leave at 7:30, yep, I'll go at 7:30
7:35	Hmm, It'll be dark soon. I'll go to the gym. If I leave at 8 then I have 2 hours of parking and can get in a good long run and heck, throw in a swim! OK, deal
8:15	Screw the swim
9:00	Well, I may as well just park on the street and in that case I don't have any time constraints. I will leave here at 9:30-10 and stay to my heart's content
10:00	CRAP! (This is either me dragging my butt to the gym or my thought when I wake up and realize I had dozed off)

 

Last night however, I got a call from the Cap who reminded me of the cardinal rule of happy Seattleites; if it is sunny out you MUST go enjoy it.

I still dragged a bit and didn't actually get out the door until 7:30. I decided to do 45minutes tempo. And it was great!

I headed out with an alarm set for 23minutes to alert me to turn around. But I felt like maybe I hadn't actually set the alarm because I had gotten kinda far and my alarm still hadn't chimed. I am officially annoyed with my running app for my iPhone so I didn't use it but from what I know of the trail I knew I'd gone more than 2.5 miles and yet I hadn't turned around yet. Hmmm.

 

Mere moments after this thought my alarm sounded and I turned back. But still I had to be clipping along to have gotten as far as I had in that much time.

 

Lesson learned here: 1) I should just get the freaking garmin so I can be more quantitative about all of this; 2) I want to be faster which means I need to be more consistent with my speedwork. I think I have been doing 1 speed workout every 2 weeks (which is an improvement over nothing) but I really deviate how/how much I do it. 3) I need a coached workout plan that I STICK TO.

 

It was a lovely run; I wanted to take a few pics but didn't want to stop. If I remember I'll load the pics of all the pretty flowering things I saw near my house as I cooled down.

 

See Amber…another example of how you're NEVER SORRY WHEN YOU GO