Necessary Roughness....

Whew--yesterday's 9 miler proved to be a somewhat difficult run. Though I actually made a lot of stupid mistakes leading up to the run:

1) Didn't eat enough early in the day
2) Definitely didn't hydrate well the day before or yesterday morning
3) Didn't take water with me on the run
4) Started the run too fast

The sad thing is...I KNOW BETTER!!

I was feeling rushed and just sort of said "Oh well...it's only once--can't do too much harm." Well, lesson learned. I am fine--and nothing happened to me--I just really noticed how quickly I lost momentum. The first half of the run was pretty good--but I really should've started off more slowly and I will never do a long run again without adequate fluids! It was also really windy when I ran East on the trail--it was a bit of a struggle against the wind, but nice on the return path with the wind behind me.

I ditched out on the group run yesterday morning for 2 reasons--1) I woke up late and still felt really groggy and tired and wasn't ready to run yet. 2) It was a brand new course for me, and I realized I had no idea what the availability of bathroom stops would be--this is critical for me. So, I put off the run until about 2pm and took to the path at Alki.

Good things about the run: I finished it--tired, but not exhausted. I did keep an average pace of about 10-min mile. It was BEAUTIFUL out yesterday--very sunny. It was a good reminder that I need to do more running outdoors to work on pacing without the treadmill! I'm also trying to view the difficulty of the run as a good thing--it's just a reminder that preparedness is really important, and that all runners have bad days, and struggling through them is just as much a part of the process as having those days where you feel invincible!

I still can't wait for warmer weather--though sunny, it was COLD.

This week is a taper week. 4 mile runs throughout the week. Thursday night I'm going to see the film "Spirit of the Marathon" with a bunch of other running geeks! Should be fun.

In other news, the Jazz workshop I went to on Saturday was great fun. I'm looking forward to the rest of the workshop. It's 8 weeks long (runs through the beginning of March). I met some really nice people and am feeling less nervous about it all now. I think it will be a great learning experience.