A Nice Surprise

1

August 5, 2013 by Amy B

When the alarm went off at 5:00 this morning, I wasn’t super stoked to get out and run. Not gonna lie.

I’d gotten to bed late the night before and even though the soreness from last week’s CrossFit workout has finally subsided, I’m not feeling particularly peppy.

Weather this morning was mid 50s, little to no wind. I never know how to dress for 50s. On Saturday, since I was going out for a few hours, I went sleeveless. I wasn’t going to be out for nearly as long, so short sleeves won, and a cotton/poly blend at that.

Dammit, if I wasn’t going to feel great about this workout, then at least I was going to be colorful.

Then this happened:

I don’t have my splits breakdown at the moment because the Garmin is at home, but I do know that my first mile was 9:45 and last was 8:40. The other were sub-9:20s, I think. The last mile was speedy because I threw in some strides in for the last half mile. I don’t like trying to look at the stopwatch while I’m running while also trying to avoid potholes and sidewalk debris, so I’m counting steps. This morning, I sprinted in between street signs. It seems to work for me. Again: I’m making this up as I go.

On one of my final sprints it dawned on me that I’m not the runner I was when I started this running journey almost ten years ago. Whenever I’d sign up for an event, be it a 5K or marathon, my goal was just to finish. It didn’t matter to me what my time was. Finishing was enough. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Some years, I’ve been extremely fortunate to just finish.

But lately I’ve been wanting more and I haven’t been satisfied with my usual chugging along, just ticking away the miles. I’ve never been fast, but I want to know if I can be. I’m seeing progress in my times and like I said, I have no idea what I’m really doing when it comes to proper training. If I really stuck to a program and got some “real” coaching, what could I do?

We’ll see. This is a tough week:

Mon: 4 miles
Tues: 8 miles
Wed: 4 miles
Fri: 8 miles
Sat: 17 miles (And I thought it was only 16. Frack.)

I’m glad the nuun fairies are delivering tomorrow, because I just chugged my last cherry limeade.

This is not a fashion blog.

In other (sort of but not really) related news, Oiselle transitions to church! I wore this stripey tee there yesterday with an old J.Crew cargo skirt, circa 2007. (Yeah. My closet needs some help.) It’s one of the most lightweight and comfortable shirts I’ve ever owned. It’s so comfortable I am not sure if I even want to run in it, for fear I’ll get it sweaty and stinky.

My only beef is that I seem to be directly in between sizes on this guy. I’ve tried a medium: huge. This is a small, and it’s form-fitting, maybe even a little more than I’d like at this point. It was also a steal on Amazon – I got lucky and caught it on sale for about $22 (plus free shipping). Oiselle is the perfect marriage of sport and everyday for me. I’m not quite Patagonia hemp underwear sewn with goat hair thread, but I’m also nowhere near haute couture. We have a compromise!

Chilling in the church lounge with a cranky toddler (not pictured)

One of these days I’ll figure out how to take a flattering photo full-length.

Question: how do you keep your sunglasses from fogging up while you’re running? I can’t be the only person who has this problem. I’ve tried rubbing spit in them like I used to do in my swimming goggles/masks when I was a kid. Nada.