I got a slow and easy start to my day. I was feeling a little bit achy all over from my unique sleeping patterns, so didn't jump right out of bed and hit the road running this morning. I am long overdo for a new mattress and finally decided to go for it. I had already picked out my dream mattress a number of years ago and began digging around for it online this morning. Once I had found it, I was now more certain than ever I was going to make this an immediate priority! I looked it up to research all the details and was extremely disappointed to find it contained both wool and silk. In addition to them not being on a vegan venue, neither are on my personal choice list. I started searching for options and found a really cool organic and vegan mattress, but I don't have any way of trying it out first. I put that on the back burner and decided to do a live customer service chat with the store that had my original mattress. Are there any items comparable? Are there any that don't contain animal products? We found a fairly nice option but again, nothing nearby where I can test it out. The search continues and I'm sure I'll post all about it once it unfolds. In the meanwhile, back to today!
As I said, moving slow, feeling achy and training on hot, sunny hills was planned for today. As with my previous runs, I was feeling pretty great on the level stretches, especially when I hit a patch of shade. I made sure to savor those rare moments, to really live in that moment. But these breaks were few and far between today. The level stretches good, the downhill stretches better, downhill and shade....GREAT! But then there were the challenging hills and open sun. I tightened my stride, I slowed my pace and on I plodded. There were times that I knew if I hadn't experienced this before, known I could do it, that I might have given up in the past, but I did know better and I did not give up.
It is truly tough timing a run to know when you can really exert some of your best energy. I don't like to start out with too much too soon, which I have done in the past, because this doesn't leave much for the rest of the run. If you take it too slow and easy, you don't grow or challenge yourself as you would like. I try to have a regular steady 'go to' pace throughout, but when I hit some easier stretches, I pull out a little more. As I approach the more challenging sections, I tighten the stride and ease back on the pace. Today, I had it planned out that majority of the last run interval would be on hills. Ending a race on a hill is a tough one, especially if you use up all your good stuff early on, you simply run out of steam. Both of the races I have this month have hills throughout and end on hills, I knew I needed to build up some endurance for that. If I could pull this off, I knew the very last two minutes or so would be downhill and level.
That last two minutes was my dangling carrot. It kept me going even when I was feeling spent. And there it was, just around the next turn and I would be close to heading down that hill. Ahhhh! I made it, here it is! Here's the good stuff!! Weeeeeeee!!! And there's the water fountain!! You're almost there....MADE IT! I'm not sure fresh cool water ever tasted so wonderful!!
I walked back up the hill, to my car and headed home. Boy was I hungry!! I knew I wanted something specific, but couldn't put my finger on it. Something peanut butter...that's it! And here it is, my interesting post run hankerin'. I am currently gobbling up every single bite!
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| A classic: Peanut butter and pickles |
HAPPY RUNNING!! AND HAPPY POST RUN GOODIES!!
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