A Practice in Patience

...which is what I need, really.  I'm one of the more impatient people you'll encounter, as I believe I've already made kind of evident by this blog.  But, Lord oh Lord, am I trying hard to change that!  This running journey of mine is one of the ways I'm trying to train myself to learn patience and lately, it seems like final exam time!  My runs lately have been pretty sad, to say the least.  I went on one today and got home only to feel: 1) not successfully de-stressed and 2) about as slow as I was in Week 3-4 of my original training!  How?!  Why?!  Argh!!!  But, it's okay, I tell myself.  Have patience, I plead with myself!  It will get better!!

Tuesday's run was absolutely nothing to write home about: I ran 2.5 miles in about 30 minutes.  Correction: I run/walked 2.5 miles in about 30 minutes.  Today's run was even worse, despite running more of it.  I ran the same distance as Tuesday (which is still short-changing myself a half mile, by the way) in 36 minutes.  I did make a change today that I wanted to try and see how it was: I listened to a book on my iPod (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) instead of heart-pumping headphone-thumping music.  Apparently, it was a bad idea since I went waaaaaaay slower than before.  However, I won't assign blame to my listening choices.  No!  This whole blog is about accountability, so I take responsibility that maybe I didn't push myself as hard on the downhill segments like I usually do.  Or, perhaps, I was just trying to see if I could run a longer amount of time consecutively without stopping.  (I'm still falling short on this goal of mine, too.)  I've gone from running anywhere between 20 and 30 minutes at a time to only running about 10 minutes before I stop to walk and, y'know what?  I'm not stopping because I'm tired, I'm stopping because I'm letting myself!  Bad girl!  I don't know where my moxy has gone, but I need to find it again and soon!!  I have a feeling once this grad school application process is behind me (which it soon will be), I'll be able to focus on normal stuff, like: the holidays! Family get togethers! Buying gifts! Wrapping gifts! Cleaning the house for family get togethers! Making cookies! Cleaning up the stuff that I make the cookies with! And much, MUCH MORE!!  Wait, no, aaack! This wasn't the way to go in terms of stuff that won't stress me out and allow me to focus on running...whoops!

All kidding aside though, I do need to really buckle down in the coming months and push myself harder on the running front.  I have let myself get by much too easily in the last month and I'm going to pay for it come February! Bad Stephanie!

I recently signed up for another race, which will serve to be the first one of the new year for me: Seasons52 Park Avenue 5.2k in Winter Park, FL.  My friends who ran each part of the 15k with me are doing this race too, so it should be lots of fun! I'd like to better my PR, even by a tiny bit, so I need to really get cracking this holiday season and run my butt off!!!

TO DO: Push myself this weekend on the 4 mile run

UPCOMING EVENTS: Saturday doubles with some friends of ours

RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER: Reindeer Run, Dec. 10th!