I’m back! And boy was it amazing……

But before I share a recap of my week up at camp, I just want to share the last two days of running. I’m still kind of exhausted/sore/not quite adjusted to life back here. But I wanted to make sure I started back up with my training program. I’m going to be repeating week 1 (probably the remainder of this week and then next week) and I will be in line with the schedule counting down until the day of the race! =)

Yesterday was a little tougher than I expected. I was pretty active up at camp – I, along with my 3 co-advisors, were responsible for the high school kids and we spent a good chunk of the week doing service learning projects. There were very few moments where I was sitting down….we were always moving around (which ended up paying off in the weight department. Came home 4 pounds lighter, but more on that later…).

But yesterday, when I got myself back onto the treadmill, I felt as though I was starting from scratch. I ran a mile before I had to stop and start walking to regain my breath and strength to continue. I was able to complete two miles in 22:46. Hard to swallow…I used to be such a good runner and now I run a mile and want to call it quits.

Today, on the drive to the gym, I kept thinking about all the posts I’ve read and all of the advice I’ve gotten from runners. It’s my first half marathon. I shouldn’t be pushing myself to increase my speed and PR with each run I have. My goal is to start and finish. To do something I’ve never done before. If I want to challenge myself with PR’ing in my second half marathon, that’s fine. But right now, completing this is enough of a challenge.

Today on the schedule was a 3-mile run. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve run 3 miles straight for quite some time…..I decided to decrease my speed to between 5.8 and 6.2 on the treadmill today. And that made all the difference. I was able to run without stopping. Run without walking. Run without feeling pain. Run with ease. And run….while remembering that I’m still a runner. 

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What do you think about when you run? What’s the mantra you play over and over in your head to keep you going?