When I laced up I just knew something was off, but I had set the date and I look at my virtuals like I do live races. Although I could move the date, I really feel you build character learning to run in various conditions. It teaches you what your capeable of, where your limits are, just how far you can push. So off into the unseasonably warm weather I went. I couldn't even have gone a mile when I could feel it...heavy, tired, an upset stomach...this wasn't going to be pretty. I had originally thought maybe I'd run longer and count the first 3.1 as my race, but that changed quickly.
After the first mile, my plan quickly became just do your best. I kept telling myself think of this as a fun run...only 2 more miles...just keep your feet moving...you can do this...this is your race. But in the back of my mind I just kept thinking "Why? Why do I feel so awful?!?!"
After 2 miles I did feel a bit better and I was going a little faster. I think taking the pressure off myself to push made all the difference. I had never been so happy to just be done with a race in my whole life as when 3.11 finally appeared on my phone. It was rough. It was ugly, but it was done. 30:43 or 9:52 per mile. Not my best, but better than I thought it was going to be.
After it was all said and done I started thinking. What happened? Everything going on right now should have netted me a great race. On vacation, resting when I want, easy run yesterday, then it hit me. Diet. My diet has been awful since vacation started :( Which then got me thinking more...
Why have I not been eating like I should? I know how I should eat. I'm constantly reading about nutrition, I've taken nutrition courses, I know what it takes to lose weight and have the right nutrition to fuel my workouts (for me anyway) Why haven't I been doing it? I could give a million excuses, but excuses do nothing to fix anything.
Long story short, there comes that moment of clarity. When you realize YOU ARE in control. You are the one making the decisions. No one else is telling you what to eat, when or how to workout, what steps you should be taking to reach your goal. It's in your hands. You need to take the bull by the horns and MAKE things happen.
The thought actually came to me earlier today when I decided to go grocery shopping. I try to involve my family in meal planning, but far too often I get "I don't know what I'm hungry for" or "I don't like that" and we've fallen into the trap of eating what sounds good, not what's balanced and healthy. Today's shopping trip is when I took the bull by the horns! I had in mind healthy dinners. I circled the store hitting the produce, meat and dairy departments first. Much less in the way of processed foods. I felt really good when I looked in my cart! I saw REAL food. REAL meals. And what will REALLY help me to become a better athlete (as well as help my family become healthier as well). As they say, you can't out exercise a bad diet!!!
We shall see how getting my eating back on track fares as I have a live race on Saturday the 14th. I will be running the Canton Charge 5k. I wasn't going to sign up for this one as I don't like requesting a lot of Saturdays off, but everything lined up for me to be able to run it. I pretty excited about it!
Then to finish out this month's race calander I am running the local Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It's been years since I ran this particular race so I'm looking forward to it as well. As well as watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when I get home ;)
Finally, I have something really exciting I will be announcing soon. So you'll have to check back here early next week so I can share my news. It's really cool, though, I promise!
For now I'm off to enjoy my evening. Until next time be happy, run far, and smile bunches!!
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