"The three qualities necessary for training. Great faith. Great doubt. Great effort" ~Anonymous.

Sometimes, I don't know how I do it? When I first started my run this morning, I didn't think I could finish a mile but, I pushed through and finished 10 instead! I do not exaggerate when I say I didn't think I would finish 1 mile. It was a major struggle. I don't know what was going on with me but I was extremely exhausted. I think it was about half a mile in when I thought I'd throw in the towel and try again tomorrow. Running is hard but, quitting is harder! The Good came when I got past the half point mark (mile 5) and I knew I could and would make it to 10. Also, I like having my long run out of the way so that I can enjoy the rest of my weekend and by 'enjoy' I mean studying algebra. The Bad came fairly early into my run when I wanted to quit at mile .52. I couldn't get my breathing steady and it felt like I was lugging dead weight. It could be all the crap I ate while hanging out with my family the day after Thanksgiving. I did so well Thanksgiving by not overindulging AND journaling but somehow I more than made up for it the day after. So much so that the scale was up a pound or tw0 (sigh). The Ugly was definitely the moment when I felt so tired, so exhausted so over my run that it seemed as if I wasn't even moving and trust me I was! I literally felt like I was running in place.

I am definitely getting 'faster'. I'm never going to run 4, 5 or even 8 minute miles but, I am getting back to my 10 minute pace. When I first started running I was faster. I believe carrying the extra weight has affected my speed ( I use the word speed lightly, lol). Today's fastest mile was mile 2 (again) which, I ran at 10.29 and my slowest mile was mile 10, ran at 11.37. In fact mile 10 was the only mile that I ran over a 10 minute pace. The fact that I even made it to mile 10 is cause for celebration. I don't care if I ran it at a 15 minute pace actually, it kind of felt like I did. :-)

It's days like today that shows me what I'm made of. I went from wanting to give up at half a mile in to finding the strength and determination to finish strong 9.5 miles later. This is why I love running!