I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm feeling REALLY good about this week!
At the end of last week/this weekend, I wasn't feeling very positive about my body or how I was doing. I was stressed with apartment hunting and food and in a really negative mind-space. Then, after talking to a few friends who read the blog, getting some good comments, and reading a good motivational blog post (Thanks, Jenny!), I'm feeling worlds better. Everyone is right: We're SO much harder on ourselves than we'd EVER be on anyone else and, also, my feeling inferior due to everyone's positive blog posts is probably skewed for the same reason I tend to disappear when I'm doing poorly on my journey. Need to keep that in mind before judging myself based on everyone's apparent progress on Twitter, etc. :)
That said, I've been doing SO well this week! Last Friday I had an hour to kill waiting for the bus after giving my CM2 (5th graders) their English oral exam for the Education nationale and so I sat down and plotted out my mileage goals for now until July. Since I have TONS of time until the half in October, my current goals are: 1) to safely work myself up to a weekly 10-mile LSD and 2) to try and keep myself from walking at all during my runs.
In order to accomplish Goal 1, I plotted out the recommended 10% weekly mileage starting with a base mileage of 12. This week my goal is 13 miles and so on and so forth until I'm scheduled to hit my 10-mile LDR at the week of July 4th. I'm planning on focusing on my running until then and trying to mold my calorie intake into building some more muscle and fueling properly for my runs.
For Goal 2, I'm just trying to keep a steady pace and instead of walking trying to replace that "rest time" with a slower jog before picking up my pace. So far, I have had two consecutive runs (4mi and 3mi) where I've done that and it's been great! (NB: I do stop running to avoid getting hit by cars. FYI.) Not stopping to walk really makes me feel empowered and much more proud after the run is over. All good things.
A few photos from last week's 4-miler
Pretty sunset over the Rhône
In order to keep myself running, I'm also having to brush up on my positive self talk. I'm not one of those runners who "enjoy the pain" or any of that. For me, probably 50-75% of the time I'm running I'm thinking about how hard it is and how much my body would rather be walking. I don't do discomfort well. That said, I'm trying to positively "coach" myself like Monica @ Run, Eat, Repeat mentioned in a recent bl0g post. So far, so good. I just keep reminding myself that I'm stronger than I think I am and to remember how far I've come to get here.
Speaking of running, I gotta run now to go pick my very good friend Taylor at the train station! We've been friends since high school and she's getting here today to visit for a week! I'm so excited to see her AND get some runs in with a friend! Tay was a ballerina and a cross-country runner in high school and if you'd have asked be back then if I'd ever go on a run with her, let alone be EXCITED about it, I would have thought you were crazy! Oh, how times change! :)
See? Here's us (Tay's in pink) Junior year of HS at the cast dinner for Oklahoma! :
Yep, I was the old lady.
