A Kick-Ass Jog

Okay, I'll admit it. Much to my displeasure, I went an entire week without jogging. At times I can honestly say that I chose to watch a football game or spend time with family instead of putting on those running shoes and hitting the pavement. However, there were 3 days last week when I planned to and even wanted to jog, and there was no time at all to do it. On those days, I got home just in time to complete tasks like feeding Silas, realizing I need to grocery shop, you know how it goes, until it was too late to actually go running at the end of the day. And speaking of the end of the day, whose big idea is this anyway to turn the clocks back? Now I'm guaranteed to be running in the pitch-black every time I go. Grr.

So, needless to say, my expectations of my jog yesterday were incredibly low, as I had not run in a solid week. I thought it would be a great mental battle, which it often is, and I told myself to start small and be pleased with myself if I could accomplish five minutes (okay, so I was REALLY going small). Well, the first time I looked at my watch, 6:15  had passed and I still felt marvelous, so I set my next goal to be running around the park one time, which would put me at one mile. Well, I made it around the park and had really hit my second wind at that point, so on I kept. At about a mile and a half, BJ started getting snarky with me about my pace (boo, BJ!) so I barked at him to run ahead of me and leave me alone, as obviously I could use encouragement rather than criticism. So on he went, and Tex and I proceeded to complete our run at 2.5 miles, which took me 31 minutes. Yes, I'm a slow runner, I know this. But may I also please add that one minute of this time was spent jogging in place as Tex pooped, peed, and sniffed about on multiple occasions. I am way ahead of training on the Couch to 5K plan, which only expects you to be able to run for 30 minutes the day before the race. However, clearly my pace is not on target, so I am figuring that I will really need to run about 40 minutes to accomplish the 3.1 miles of the Turkey Trot. BJ mentioned last night that apparently he doesn't like the way that I set goals for myself WHILE running, rather than saying before I begin jogging, "Well, I expect to run precisely 2.55 miles this eve."  Instead, as I mentioned above, my goals for last night's jog started at 5 minutes, then went to once around the park, then went to 20 minutes, then 26 minutes, and finally I just went into what I will call "Penny Mode," where I "run until I get hungry, and then I eat a bearclaw," only there was a Dove chocolate at my house rather than a bearclaw. I ended the jog with the additional benefit of feeling tired but good, and certainly not at death's door. Will keep you posted on my progress! And, although this was a month ago, congratulations again to Claire's Crew for your excellent job done at the Minneapolis 10K. Someday I may be able to run that far too!