One Step

I love Saturday mornings. More than any other morning.

This morning was glorious, I sipped coffee with my SIL Manda. She loves my darker than sin coffee. Nothing is more enjoyable than slowly finishing my morning awakening with someone I adore. Especially since on Saturday mornings Logan can sleep the day away. Oh there was also bacon. Need I say more?

After we finished up, we set out the track some miles. Manda has been rocking out 5k after 5k, and we just signed up for one together in September.

It was a great morning for a run, and we sweat it out. Then I taught Manda the joys of foam rolling.

Now I am going to spend the rest of the day playing with nephews, and eating food I shouldn't....why yes, I am at Chic-Fil-a inhaling a chocolate shake.

What do you love about Saturdays?
How do you take your coffee?
Chocolate or vanilla?

It's Business Time

So y'all know the hubs has gone running with me in the past. He's definitely more of a sprinter than a long distance runner, but for WHATEVER reason he decided he was going to start running with me. Obviously, I'm ecstatic! More time doing what I adore with the two beings that I love the most is magical. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll ever be running marathons or 5ks-he's interested in getting in better shape, and increasing lung capacity for our frequent snowboarding trips. But hey whatever gets you on the trial!

If you remember our last run together, I pushed him way to hard and he was hesitant to ever go again. We ran four miles that day, and he was deadsies. So I pinky swore we wouldn't run more than two miles, and I'd let him set the pace and decide when we'd walk. The weather was rainy, and cool-which is my favorite running weather. Logan, however, hates getting wet. So all variables in mind, it was-again-not an ideal run.

We walked to warm up for half a mile, I joked about how Goliath is AWFUL on the lead while walking but the second we run he's all about business. Sure enough, once we started to pick up the pace Goliath stopped sniffing and started leading. Logan's natural jogging pace is pretty quick, but I let him test the waters. I never did any beginning running program like Couch to 5k, so I'm not well versed in the best ways to START running. I just know how to STAY running. When I started, I just went at it.

The half mile we ran was pretty quick, our pace dropped from 20min/miles to 8:30s. He did really well, but I could tell that was a struggle for him. We walked the rest of the way home, and did get no more than 2.0 miles like I promised. On our way back, he looked at me, laughed and said "Running sucks!" I laughed and agreed, but added that it sucks when you start. I told him once you start seeing progress, or getting better it doesn't suck so much-but then there's always the chance that he'll never fall in love, or even like with the sport-and that's ok too. Running isn't for everyone.

Ideally, nothing would make me happier than completing a race with the hubs. I am infatuated with that idea-but I know it will likely never happen. But I can dream right? We'd make quite the cute running family.

Wasted on Fixing All the Problems

As I type this, I'm sitting on the right hand side of our bed with my husband to my left sprawled out on his back and Goliath to my right, belly up on the floor passed out and twitching in a dream. So why am I awake? Urm, I woke up at 5am to run 4 miles-that's why. No need to rejoice, I'm irritated at myself. Why? I'll also tell you. It all starts with last night's choices, which included....

a full liter of long island ice tea.

I mean, maybe the drink alone wouldn't be so bad-but paired with nachos, fries and whatever it was that I grazed off of friend's plates it's a major problem. Like Apollo to Ground Control, we have a problem-problem. But really who can turn down a liter of long island for $5....and nachos?....and fries?....and whatever it was that I grazed off of friend's plates? Well I know I can't-could you?

When you make compromises with yourself, that should be a red flag that you probably shouldn't be doing whatever it is. If you have to bargain with your own conscience, probably not a good decision to begin with right? This is what I did: Ok Jules, you can drink this but you still gotta run tomorrow no matter what-even if that means puking the whole way. Puking, I can handle, but it was the acid reflux-bloat-headache train that I hopped this morning. My alarm went off, and I argued with myself for like ten minutes. I guzzled some water, sipped a little coffee for a boost and put my foot to pavement.

What was suppose to be four, quickly became a quick and easy two mile run. Burping over and over became not only miserable, but absolutely unbearable. A mile in I knew, sometimes you can just tell-no matter what: this isn't going to be a good run, and the only thing that's going to make it better is to recognize that. Luckily, there wasn't anyone on the trail so Goliath got a little off-leash freedom.

We took it down to a slow jog, explored a little, turned around and finished up strong. No matter what I'm burping up, just being out with my pup on a beautiful morning is an awesome thing. I shouldn't be mad at myself right? I am a serious runner, but I also have a serious social life-and maybe I'm ok with sacrificing a little training for a little fun.

Mileage: 2.11
Times: 20:58.10

PS: please check out some new blog features! I've added two pages: Races and What I Ate Today...