Pushing myself

This morning I knew I needed to run.

But I really didn't want to run.

We were in the middle of a snowstorm, Justin was going to play basketball at the church, Kyle is getting his first tooth so he's snotty and not feeling too great, and I was just not feeling energetic.

I told Justin I just wasn't going to go.

But Makenzie wanted to go play at the gym, and Justin gave me the wise advice to just go.

So I went.

And as usual, I was glad I did.

I was kind of thinking I would do a 10k distance, but I started out not really knowing what I was going to end up doing.

I warmed up for the first mile and by the end of that mile I was doing a 6.8 on the treadmill (I think that's an 8:49 pace). I was feeling pretty good.

I started thinking about the upcoming Ragnar race, and the 4-mile straight uphill leg I have to run, and I decided to start some uphill training.
So every other song I put it on a 2.5 incline for the duration of that song. I didn't decrease my speed (still 6.8) so it was a good challenge. By 3 or maybe 4 songs of that uphill, I was getting tired.
So all of mile 4 I just ran, same pace.
On mile five, I was recovered and decided to push myself just a little more.
I decreased my speed down to a 6.0 (10 minute mile) and put the incline on a 4.0. That's a pretty good incline. I did two songs like that- it was a challenge.
As a reward for my efforts, on the last mile I gave myself a nice -2.0 downhill. It felt great.
I ended up doing my full 6.4 miles in 58:13.
I think that's a 9:22 pace.
I really ran my guts out and it felt so good!