I've been pretty aggressive with my running training plan lately. I'd like to drop some time from my last marathon, and know I need to do more with tempo runs, hills, intervals, and weights to get there. It caught up to me last week in a wretched 12 miler. I don't think I've ever had a more awful run. My legs were heavy and tight, my hamstrings and calves cramped up about 2 miles in, and I had to stop several times to catch my breath and stretch. I almost never stop (save for red lights of course) on a run, so that was really unusual for me. I got home and was pretty worried about the upcoming half marathon, given such a rotten long run.
And then I realized that when I typed up my training plan, I skipped the week of 5/23 - it just wasn't on my plan. Which was stupid, but meant I had an extra week before the half and got to redo 12. Though I was a little disappointed I didn't get to start tapering this week - it would have been nice to only have to run 9 for my long run - I was anxious for a second shot at the longer distance. I had a race on Thursday - a 1 mile - and ran pretty fast, but didn't have other tough workouts this week. So I was a little worried about my legs recovering from the race, but made a goal to keep running this week, no matter if I had to slow way down.
And I was gifted a beautiful morning today to have at it. It was a much, much better run, no stops this time, and even kept pace pretty close to where I'd like to be. Not quite, but closer. And now I'm feeling so much better about the race.
So today I'm thankful for second chances. Even the small, meaningless ones.
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