What's up with awful runs?

I must apologize in advance.  I did not run on Saturday.  I had a couple adult beverages on Friday evening and was no quite up to running Sat. morning.  LOL! 

But, I did not let that deter me from running this weekend.  I got up this morning and decided to go out before we took my MIL out to lunch to celebrate Mother's Day.  I put on a pair of my new capri pants (that did not have a liner!) and headed to the local park.  I wasn't wasn't feeling the run today, but since I had swore I would run this weekend, I had to go.  So, my decision was to see how fast I could run a mile.  I headed to Shelley Park and walked to the start of the path. 

I started off at a good clip.  I was excited thinking I was making good time as I ran.  When I got to the end of the path to turn around, I was at 5:54 for 1/2 mile.  This was a great time for me!  I think the best I have ever done at the 1/2 mile mark is 5:45 and that was sometime last spring.  So, I was psyched!  I turned around to return to the start and felt pretty good. 

Then I hit the hill.  I kinda forgot about the hill.  It's really steep and I've been running on fairly flat side walks lately.  I was totally unprepared for the hill.  And the run went down hill from there...well, I wish, but you know what I mean.  I felt awful going up the hill and wanted to stop with every step.  I continued on though and finally got back to the start.  And had the worst 1 mile time I've had in ages...13:24.  :-(  It has been a very long time since I have run a mile in 13 minutes.  I had gotten used to running the mile in the low 12:20s and had hoped to be around that when I hit the end of the path. 

Yes, I will chalk a good bit of that up to the hill, but it still doesn't take the sting out of the disappointment I felt when I hit the stop on Garmin and saw that number.  I'm thinking I may try to run a mile on Sunday mornings just to see if I can improve that time.  I just know that I was really sad when I saw that time...

Running Fool...LOL!

Monday night. The start of the week. This is the first day of summer hours. During the summer we work Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and have a nice half day on Fridays - 8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. While I love the Friday afternoons off, but this whole 8:00 a.m. start time KILLS! It is times like these that I wish I were a morning person. LOL!

Anyway...headed out to Shelley Park tonight to run. The weather is gorgeous! Sunny and cool, but not cold. Just a really great evening. So, last run at Shelley was 1.5 miles and my run Saturday at Couselor was 2.5 miles, so tonight was 2 miles at Shelley. Decided I felt as if I could do 2 miles last time at Shelley, but didn't want to push it. So, headed off for 2 miles tonight. I did fine! I might have been able to go to 2.5 tonight at Shelley - hills and all - but decided to go slowly. The park will be there all summer. I can get to 2.5 miles eventually. But for now, I am THRILLED with my 2 miles at the hilly park. It's something I honestly never thought I would see since it's so hilly. Apparently I am capable of more than I thought. :)

What a Fantabulous Run!

After work I decided to head to the park and run. I go to a park near the house that's very hilly. The same park I ran on Monday night. I have traditionally run a mile there because there's a HUGE hill and I just couldn't get past it. So tonight, I took a short cut. There's a bypass to that hill and tonight, I took it. By taking the short cut, I was able to run two laps at the park rather than the one I've been running for about 2 months.

I started out slow. Knowing that I normally run the course faster than I was going, but I thought distance over time. I'm hoping I got that right! I was really excited that I was holding up well. I will say that the first little bit of the short cut was rough! I expected it to be easy compared to the big hill, but no. The first 20 feet was worse than the big hill. LOL! That'll teach me to take the short cut. ;-)

I came around to where I started and began the second lap. I was only at .75 miles at this point. Normally, when I'm back to the start, I've run a mile, so that was hard to wrap the mind around. But, onward I trudged. And trudge is an apt word. I was not going fast at all, but I was moving.

The second lap wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Though on the way back to the start point, I dreaded that short cut area. I knew that those 20 feet were going to kill me, but if I could get past them, I could do the rest of the run. When I got to the end of the two laps, I had run 1.6 miles in 24:51. It was slow, but I've never run more than a mile at this park, so I was fine with my time. I almost felt like I could have gotten to 2 miles, but I decided I didn't want to push it. That course is really hilly.

So, that's my fantastic run and I'm really excited about it!