I was supposed to go to our group run on New Year’s Eve Day Morning, but the night before, I was EXHAUSTED. I made the difficult decision (I do really hate to miss speed workouts) that I needed to sleep in and if I had time that day, I would go on a run myself. I ended up sleeping until 8:30 that morning, which is about the time I would have been getting home from workout and drinking my coffee. The sleep felt great and I had a zip in my step. I filled the day with buying stuff for our appetizer-filled New Year’s Eve and Day football watching, making some of the appetizers, and then going out for New Year’s, so I didn’t get a run in. My scheduled day off was New Year’s Day, so I was relatively conflicted as to taking two whole entire days off working out. Eh, oh well. I realized that I hadn’t taken two days off in a row since the B2B in late October, so I thought I was due. After two whole minutes, the conflict was over. I also knew I wouldn’t have the luxury of taking those two days off until April, so I took them when I could!
Fast forward to yesterday, the day I had another group workout scheduled, the day it rained the entire day. The workout was cancelled at a late hour, so as soon as my husband crossed the threshold of the door from work, I took off for my run in the cool rain. I COULD NOT take three entire days off running, so I re-created a tempo/speed workout from a few weeks past.
Me looking like a goober before the run. Where’s my smile?!?
Over the holiday, I’ve been careful not to overeat too much, but I’ve had plenty of liquid carbs. On my first mile, I felt a little like I had a “dun-lap”…. you know, “your belly done lap over your belt”? I’d been careful not to overeat too much over the holiday, but yeah, it was time to get in a good run and get back to normal eating and drinking! Anyway, my Garmin ran out of battery after the warm-up mile, so I irritatingly ran back home and got my other Garmin. I was ready to go.
I did 10 minutes of about a 7:10-7:15 pace, followed by a two minute rest, TWICE, then did 5 minutes of a pace just a little faster than that. After the first few minutes of the first set, I felt like I was floating. It was great and the “dun-lap” feeling went away. The workout wasn’t easy, per se, but it felt very powerful, and I wasn’t out of breath like I thought I might be. I made sure to pick my feet up, watch for the UPS truck that almost hit me, and I kept at a steady pace. The endorphin rush in the middle of the workout came on very strong, and I could have kept going. What is it with those endorphins anyway? Some days I get them, some days I beg and plead for them and never ever get them, and then there’s those workouts that fill you with a sense of power that you could accomplish anything. “Let’s run ALL THE MILES!!” (It’s similar to that post-race euphoria where you want to sign up for all the races, which is why, having learned the hard way, I imposed the one week moratorium on signing up for anything after a race.) If there was only a way to capture that feeling and then take a little supplement of it when we most need it, say, mile 21 of a marathon, I would certainly create it, invest in it, or just buy it!
Needless to say, I made a good decision to run yesterday. I did yoga today, which always makes me feel like I’m a 4×4 piece of inflexible wood – seriously, I DO NOT get how some people can bend that way. I still have some of that good feeling left over from yesterday, which is always nice. Since it’s their last day of actual winter break, I’m taking my kids to the roller skating rink for a while this afternoon, and I will vow to not try and do any skating tricks and use up my left over endorphins and possibly meet my medical deductible early in the year. 🙂
I’ve got some miles to cover this weekend, but I plan to run where I can feel the ocean breeze and I look forward to my next endorphin rush.
Running Boston And Beyond 
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