Head games

So Happy Saturday!

Today was my scheduled long run. 8 miles.

I woke up this morning ready to take it on! I’ve done this before, surely I can knock this out and add another great training day to my workout routine.

Have my coffee, eat a light breakfast, go upstairs and put my running clothes on. Whip out the Garmin and figure out how to set a workout (because I’ve had this thing for 18 months and barely know how to work it aside from hitting “start” at the beginning of a run).

Me: “oh hey, I can set this thing for 8 miles, set my pace and go nuts with my bad self”

Commence run.

Mile 1: “feeling good, sun is out, birds are singing, life is good”  (Garmin beeps 9:22 pace)

Mile 2: “yeah, not feeling this anymore, legs are getting tight, ugh need to stretch” (Garmin beeps 10:18 pace)

Mile 3: “for real?!?!? maybe I’m doing too much; training too hard; need to walk” (Garmin beeps 12:42 pace) “ugh just make it to 4 miles and you can stop”

Mile 4: “oh thank god this torture is over – F this 8 mile run, who needs to run 8 miles today? certainly not me” (Garmin beeps 11:40 pace and taunts me with the message “50% complete) “okay I’ll run towards home and see how I feel”  Then I remember that my blog friend Courtenay is running her first 10K today.… “in honor of Court, just make it to 6.2, then you can quit”

Mile 5: “6.2 for Court, 6.2 for Court” Chanting over and over again. “C’mon Dana, you got this…” (Garmin beeps 10:27 pace)

Mile 6(.2): “whoo hoo I made it!!! 1.8 miles left….for goodness sake, just finish what you came out to do” (Garmin beeps 9:42 pace)

Mile 7: “running is fun, well not really, but I’m really almost done” (Garmin beeps 9:20 pace)

Mile 8: “just keep moving, you’re almost there, just a little further, this isn’t so bad….who am I kidding, today this sucks….just keep going” (Garmin proceeds to play a little tune of victory, 10:10 pace, “workout complete”)

Happily walk my 1/2 mile cool down back home 🙂