3 Miler Monday

I would say today was a good running day!

I thought a lot today while I getting into my groove. I find myself thinking a lot during my runs and I wish I had a pen and paper sometimes! But I'm a runner, not a magician; so no can do.

First, I noticed today that my neighborhood had American flags EVERYWHERE. Even my own house has one! I didn't even see it until today! There is a common theme that on or around the mailbox area there is one or more American flags. Now, I'm not sure if everyone got together and was like, hey our mailboxes should be patriotic! Or maybe there was a trend setting house that lots of other houses decided to copy. I'm not sure. But it made me laugh slightly passing all of those flags and being like, "oh hey guys, I'm moving to England!" (I didn't say it out loud..... just in my head)

Second, I ran more in the road today than on the sidewalk, which I totally fell in love with! The Florida bugs were out to play today and being on a sidewalk between two stretches of grass was not doing me any favors. Road = less bugs in face. Great!

Finally, I wallowed in a bit of self pity over my inability to sign up for races too far into the future. I have a long list of races that I'd like to do. Sadly, registration closed due to full capacity on one of the races I was most eager to do in England before I could register. The sad thing is that while waiting for your visa, they tell you not to book any flights because the visa might not get approved. That fact seems to be haunting me lately.

Aside from all my pondering, my run felt good. At first I felt a bit more sluggish than I would have liked, but that faded as I inched closer to the 11 minute mile mark. Baby steps!

They always say that your mind gives out before your legs do, and that your mind is what sometimes (all the time for me) weighs you down. That is exactly what happened to me today. I knew I wanted to cover 3 miles. But whenever I go out with these "goals" in mind, I seem to slow down most at the final stretch when I know I don't have that much more to go. Today I had .4 miles to go. Less than half of a mile! My mind started giving out and therefore, so did my pace. I remember when I used to not have time or mileage goals and just "ran as much as I felt I could run". That's when I saw the most improvement because I was running smart and for fun.

I need to get back into that mentality!