H2H -- Week 2: Timing is Everything & a Lesson Learned

Week 2 of my half marathon training is over, and I feel I've made some progress!

However, thanks to the intense rain & storms we seem to have at least once a day (usually in the evenings, it seems)... and thanks to the heat & humidity of the evenings here in eastern NC... and thanks to having a fun little family at home that I don't want to miss a single minute with... I have decided I need to work in some early morning runs instead of my usual evening runs.

Now, if you know me pretty well, then you know I am NOT a morning person and my husband has to drag me out of the bed each morning at the last possible second before being late for work.  So getting up early (say, 5:30 am) is TOUGH!!!

But Tuesday morning I did it (although I hit snooze a few times and got up at 5:50am instead)... I have a goal to increase my "run-straight-through" mileage by half a mile each run until I am able to get back to my baseline of being able to run straight through 3 to 4 miles like before.  Tuesday I ran 1.5 miles before stopping (and I was ready to stop!!  I was, as we like to say in eastern NC, "give out").  Total mileage was 3.1 miles.

Here was my sweet reward for getting up early.... a gorgeous sunrise.

Can I just say I am so thankful for a God that loves us despite the mess we've made of this world to still give us gifts like sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, waterfalls, etc?

Anyway, Thursday was a hectic day and rainy if I remember correctly.... so I did my 3 miles on the treadmill.  Ho hum.  I must say, I think my calibration on the treadmill is off... it's saying it's taking 4 minutes longer to do the same distance on it as I do on the pavement.  AND if I'm going to have to do some of the short runs on that TM, then I need to get a "Where's Waldo?" poster in front of me to keep me entertained or something.

Friday was date night, and me the hubby caught the new Superman flick.  But I was soooo excited when one of my best friends answered a text in the middle of the movie that said she might consider running in the half marathon with me in November!!!!  You don't understand how much I love this girl :)  She's like... in my mind, y'all! :)  This is Amber -- she ran the 10K with me.

I ran my "long run" this evening (which was supposed to be 4 miles), despite the fact that I seriously could have gone to bed around 8pm.  I made myself get out there.  You have to force your body out there sometimes.  I read somewhere that if you really don't wanna go running, just lace up and tell yourself you'll only run for 5 minutes, and if after 5 minutes you still aren't feeling it, you can stop.  Usually, once you've run for 5 minutes, you're good to go.

I absolutely love this route I took tonight.  It gives both gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.  I took it Tuesday too... but my GPS on my RunKeeper app didn't fail me on Tuesday like it did tonight :(  ...I had to go off of landmarks, where I thought I might have turned around at the 1.5 mile mark on Tuesday.  So needless to say, I was a little off... I ended up only running 3.4 miles.  I was pretty disappointed when I got back to my Mac and put in the address at which point I turned around "half-way" and it only said 1.7 miles.  Grrrrr!!!!  To make this frustrating run even worse, it had to have been about 100% humidity, and the BUGS!  The bugs were like curtains I had to run through!!  They were going in my eyes, nose, mouth, even the one ear I leave my ear-bud out of!  I was pulling dead gnats out of my sports bra before I showered! :) Anyway, THEN, as if that wasn't enough, every time I pulled my phone out to snap a pic of the amazing sunset views, it would turn off my music.  I was about to lose my mind over this run!!!!

Thankfully, it was in those moments of taking in that breathtaking sunset that I kept whispering, "Thank you God..."  This sunset was one of the most stunning ones I've seen in a long long time.  And it occurred to me that He was trying to teach me something here...

Amidst the frustrations of life, we can get distracted by them and miss the sheer beauty of it.  If we keep a heart of gratitude & praise despite those frustrations, He will reward us and show us things we never knew could be so beautiful.  We must always look ahead, and not lose our focus on the reason we are on this journey... and while this rings true for running (keep your head up, don't look down), I always find that "running-lessons" usually are life-lessons too.

And thanks to this gorgeous view & a new fab playlist, I was able to (almost) run the entire 3.4 miles tonight (with the exception of stopping for pics and coughing up a lung thanks to a gnat and trying to get my phone to behave & restart RunKeeper and my music... hahaha!!!).

Anyone have suggestions on the bugs?  I think I will start borrowing my hubby's Garmin running watch & just use my iPod Shuffle for my music.  Don't worry... I'll still keep my phone on me for safety & for capturing moments like these above to share with you.

Have a great week!