I went for a run today…and I didn’t totally hate it. I’m unsure how I feel about this situation because I have always disliked running. I feel like I just found out that Santa doesn’t exist (hypothetically speaking of course BECAUSE HE TOTALLY DOES) I’m blaming my odd change of heart on the Equinox. Its a beautiful first day of Spring and its giving me unwanted warm fuzzies and happy thoughts. Its freaking me out.
Here are some other reasons (besides the Equinox) that I attribute/blame for my good run…
1. My ipod played really good music…Its always a risk when you set your ipod to shuffle…especially if you listen to crap music like myself…Now I love country music, but its not ideal for running, so its always kind of a bummer when Brad Paisley interrupts a good running pace, but today the ipod stuck to zumba-esq dance songs and mah gurl Britney. Excellent.
2. Mynew ankle brace…My old one wasn’t cutting it…I was using a compression sock for extra support but all it was doing was cutting off circulation to my foot mid-run (which always provided me with an excellent reason to stop), this new brace is like having an all new upgraded ankle. Bonus.
3. I’ve got my mental game set…I’d say running is 50% athletic and 50% mental….While I have been working on the athleticism situation, my mental game was seriously lacking…No I don’t mean that I’ve decided to stop complaining about running and embrace it with open arms…I’ve just changed the way I am looking at attempting the half marathon. 13.1 miles is daunting. That’s a long, long way. So, thanks to my friend Anne, I’ve stopped looking at it as miles. I’ve changed my training routine, so that I now run for a 10 minute stretch (which is cake) and then allow myself a 1 minute walk. Thinking of the race as 13 ten minute intervals is not nearly as scary as thinking of it as 13 miles. So my head is in the game. Check.
4. I stretched before my run… Ya…apparently stretching is good for you to do before and after you run. .Who knew? Whoops.
5. It was a GORGEOUS day…seriously…Spring couldn’t have chosen a better day to arrive on. It was warm enough out to make me want to escape my desk and get outside, but not so warm that I was drowning in my own sweat by the time I finished. Nice.
So ya, I ran today. And I didn’t hate it. And its weird. It’s hard to hate anything on a day like this-so that’s what I’ll chalk this new outlook up too….the Equinox. It does weird things to you.
I would like to take a serious moment (shocking I know) to thank all the runners who commented on my previous running post (The Pros and Cons of Running) for their kind words of support and all of their advice. It meant so much to me and was a great opportunity to connect with other runners who don always love running 100% of the time. So thank you, you all were right, there are good running days and bad running days. I was lucky and today was a good one (for the first time ever), hopefully there are more to come!
Thanks for reading! xo Whitney
