Saturday, July 12, 2008

Runner's Block

I think my runner's block has finally passed! Yesterday when I popped outside to grab lunch, the weather was beautiful and my first thought was, "Oh, I should run today." I didn't end up going yesterday because Kristen and our friend Colleen were coming over and given the way things had been going, I didn't want to rush.

So this morning I woke up with the entire day and road ahead of me. I made a pedicure appointment so I wouldn't wuss out -- you gotta have the carrot sometimes and nothing makes your feet shagnastier than running. I was even feeling good enough to try something new.

For the past two months, I've been running the same route except for the couple 5ks. I like my route. It's comfortable and familiar. There are hills, but not too many, and two side streets I can go up and down to extend my distance. It's shady and has far less foot traffic than running on Beacon. But after being in such a rut, I decided it was time to expand my horizons. The only problem with this is that I'd have no idea how far I was going. At this stage in the game though, I have a rough idea of my pacing, so I was less concerned that I'd think I'd run 3 miles and only have run 1.5.

It was a good run, aside from spending about 4 minutes stopped at lights. I'm getting faster, not drastically so, but I'm inching closer to 14 minutes a mile.

I got a whole different kind of carrot after logging my run and checking my mileage total: it seems that I've run my first 50 miles. And that's pretty good motivation to start the next 50.