running one mile, 13.1 times: A lot of miles...!

A lot of miles have been run since that last post!

Well, 24 miles to be exact.

That 5 mile run I was looking forward to? It was awesome. It was HILL-TASTIC but so good. Kept a 10:41 pace overall, which is exciting.

My long run this past weekend was not really a long run. Last week was a cut back week, and my run for the weekend was only a 7 miler. (It is still insane to me that I just typed that. ONLY 7 miles. A year ago, that would have been mind boggling). That 7 mile run was a hard one though. First four miles on snowy roads and I just felt like I was running on sand. The last 3 were on more clear roads, but I got chased by a scary ass dog for a bit so that was terrifying. Well maybe I exaggerating haha. He didnt chase me. I was running down the road on the same side as his house. And he raced across the yard toward me and as I got closer to him, he got closer to me, barking a scary ass bark the whole way. So I crossed the street, and he didnt follow, but it really did scare the crap out of me. It was a BIG OL german shepard, similar to this:

This weeks running calls for two three milers and a six miler. I got out of work early on Tuesday so I tackled the 6 miles after work so I could run around East Lansing and get a change of scenery.

Those 6 miles were AMAZING. OMGGG It was just one of those runs were you feel invincable. I finished in 1:03 and my splits were 10:43, 10:36, 10:37, 10:27, 10:29, and 10:11. I just felt strong and speedy the whole time.

On the flip side of that, I ran three miles this morning outside and just felt dead the whole time. My legs felt heavy and slow, and didnt really feel good until about mile 2.5. And by then I was almost done. And my pace reflected that. Those three miles took me 35 minutes. lame.

Ah well. That is one of the beauties of running I think. You never know what you will get, but no matter what I get, I always want the next run. If I had a great run, I want to run again and try and get that same feeling. If I have a craptastic run, I want to run again to have a better run.

It is a beautiful thing.

You know what else is a beautiful thing?

well, I have 2 things really.

This past weekend I saw a friend that I have not seen since September. There has been a lot going on with this friend, and I wont really go into it. But seeing her, and just hanging out and talking about stuff was awesome. She is really learning a lot about herself and I loved hearing about what she has discovered. And through her discoveries I learned a lot about myself. It was just...it was a great time seeing her. I hope it doesnt go so long again. We have plans to see The Hunger Games and get dinner so that will happen sometime in March or April :)

The other beautiful thing: