Earthly connections

    I was a cranky mess last night chasing my kids around to go to bed. I threatened, yelled, pleaded and was able to get to bed by 10pm. That is super early for a working mom. Normally I need this time to unwind, but I wanted to get a morning run in and what better way to succesfully get up for a morning run than to go to bed super early. I woke up at 4am and laid in bed for 20 minutes. Got up got ready and stepped outside. The smell of the morning was
almost as magical as the sounds of the dark morning. I put away my earphones after about a minute and chose to just enjoy the morning sounds instead. 

     It had rained the day before so all the tall grass on either side of the path I take were leaning over wetting my entire lower leg as I ran past them. I imagined they were nature fans, giving me gentle, wet high fives as I ran past them. I left the house at 5am, so around 5:35am I began to see the sky brighten up and was sad to see the darkness fade. There is a cozy annonimity about running in the dark. I quickly got over this as I welcomed the low laying fog that rose over the trees and were now visible thanks to the light. 

       I smirked thinking how few gifts a treadmill really had to offer. On a treadmill you will not have wet, tall grasses giving your legs soft high-fives, on a treadmill you would not have to maneuver around muddy puddles or get the full breadth of the morning smells and sounds. I feel so fotunate to be able to do this.....and to think I almost rolled over and went back to bed. 

Claiming back my streets....my cold dark quiet morning streets

           I am reading the book, Run, by Dean Karnazes and in it he shares about running at odd hours, and I mean ODD hours....like 2am in the morning, at times even all night long. As a woman runner, the FIRST thought that goes through my mind is, "I could never do this for the mere fact that a woman can't be out at 2am on the streets anywhere in the US, or most of the world without worrying about her safety". Dean too felt afraid at times, he recalls a time when a woman almost ran him over at wee hours in the morning, but still, I was jealous at the freedom he enjoys, simply being a man. Once on my long training weeks I pushed my long run late enough that I found myself needing to run until midnight. The first and only night I did this I had some van stop halfway down the street and then coast slowly as he stared at me. That was the end of my odd-hours adventures. 

        But the book got me missing the beautifully quiet dark streets of the early mornings. Ever since my injury last year I was forced to work out at the gym and then just got used to doing my workouts in the gym. Now I have forgotten all about what it feels like to run outdoors.....these coming weeks I will begin to make efforts to run outdoors in the mornings....will report on my progress soon. 

Tears of joy

            Tears of pure joy!! 16 miles and fastest half marathon distance this year!! NEVER.GIVE.UP. This training season has been quite torturous. I have not been able to lose some of the weight I have put on since my last race (Nov. 2015) and therefore I automatically thought I would not be able to run the same pace as I have done before. Although that remains somewhat true, I have been getting faster little by little, week by week. After my 16 miler today I got this alert on my Garmin that I have 2 new records....Longest run and fastest half marathon distance!! wow. This one run today was very strong. I ran up most of the hills except the ones at the very end and the huge ones. 

Today was also a beautiful morning! The moon was out behind these ever so lightly breezy clouds, the air felt cool and fresh and new, even though the humidity, online,  said otherwise. Surprisingly, the humidity was still very high, 95%; this is even higher than it was last week!, luckily, it was a lot cooler than last week. 

I relaxed into my run listening to some new Bachata songs on Spotify. The pace of bachata matches my pace white well and the lyrics are always pretty entertaining, all about unrequited love and lovemaking, pretty amusing. Here is the view of my flashlight on the street before sunrise. This is one of the darkest streets I run on and there is this 1/4 mile wall on each side of the street. My amazing flashlight is able to illuminate the whole street and I feel quite safe and secure once I flash my lights all around once over and no one is on the street. 

The sun shows up behind the shadows. By mile 4 the sun starts to creep in, but seeing as it's cloudy, it's darker for much longer. Nevertheless I am always amazed at the many faces of the sky. This one id other-worldly. 

I finally put the flashlight away in my hydration pack pocket and I just LOVE this wide street....saw zero runners until about mile 7...

Zion (below) is the most twisty and hilly street. I was getting pretty annoyed with how many roller coaster-like dips I had to run on.

Found a nice little side path on Zion. It was a really nice path with the exception of the highly uneven pavement covered with pine needles. 

            So week 10 is complete! 6 weeks to go....Although I am getting faster there is still a good chance that I might get pulled off the course for being below pace. I am trying to train without worrying about it, but I am also making sure that no matter what happens I will be okay....I have put blood, sweat and tears into this training and no one can take that away...Of course, I'd love a medal, but, nothing can take away the strength and power these weeks of training has brought me so far; and I have not even run my 20 miler yet. 

Perdona si te hago llorar
Perdona si te hago sufrir
Pero es que no esta en mis manos
Pero es que no esta en mis manos
Me he enamorado, me he enamorado
Me enamore
Perdona si te causo dolor
Perdona si te digo adiós
Como decirle que te amo
Como decirle que te amo
Si el ha preguntado
Le he dicho que no
Le he dicho que no

Soy honesta con el y contigo
A el lo quiero y a ti te he olvidado
Si tu quieres seremos amigos
Yo te ayudo a olvidar el pasado
No te aferres, no te aferres
A un imposible, ya no te hagas
Ni me hagas más daño, no

Tu bien sabes
Que no fue mi culpa
Tu te fuiste sin decirme nada
Y a pesar que llore como nunca
Yo seguía de ti enamorada
Pero te fuiste
Y que regresabas

Morning runs, less stress on the body

                 I experience more stress on the days I don't run in the morning and then try, the entire day, to figure out a way to squeeze it in later. In essence, missing my morning run causes huge, I mean HUGE stress in my life. There, yet another reason why running in the morning is, in essence, 'more bang for your buck'. But as we all have experienced, waking up early to run is like walking a fine line. On one side is cozy bed, sleep, comfort, warmth, on the other is a great feeling throughout the day, and a free evening, both weight fairly equal until you throw in stress..... Now, this one last reason above makes all the difference in tipping the scale towards morning runs. Yes, I hold no doubt, morning runs are WAY more beneficial all around than even afternoon runs of the same length and/or intensity because with morning runs I carry less stress throughout the day. Of course, that does not help getting up at 5am every morning any easier. The alarm sounds and each time it's a tough mental battle to even remove the covers and sit up, yet, that discomfort only lasts at most half an hour....much better than the discomfort of NOT running and being stressed all day about whether or not I will be too tired after work to get a run in....not worth the aggravation.....as cozy as that bed seems I now know which decision brings me the most comfort. 

How to SUCCESSFULLY Get Up Early Before Work and Go Running

                   











                    


                     I figured it out!!!.....well, not really....I just merely finally decided to follow the advice I've been hearing for months now on how to motivate oneself to go for a run early in the morning, before work. The advice is and has always been, get everything ready for your run.....shoes, music, earphones, socks, hairbands....whatever it is you use and place it right next to your bed. Simple right?

             I KNEW all along this advice existed, just never bothered to follow it. So this is the second time now that I did this preparation and had an amazing run, it did not feel like torture and I did not immediately slump back into my warm bed. I must add though that for this advice to really work long term you must go to bed at a decent hour, OR you surely will be miserable with a capital 'M'. 

                  This morning at 5am was THE perfect time for a run. It was a dry, not wind, 60 degrees and the sun had not yet come up.  The birds were already singing as if they knew morning was coming and that made it extra special. Running in the morning is a bigger-than-life itself mood altering act of which makes me grateful, happy and giddy all at the same time. It's like this tiny decision I make at the wee hours has the potential to make my day into a smashing success....how easy, how huge, how small.....
                 

I did it....I got up early to run

                        It has been so cold lately I have not been able to get out to run, leaving me with one awful option, working out at the gym. So at 5am this morning when my alarm went off, more than half of me begged and kicked to go back to bed for an hour.....but I fought it hard, drank my coffee and headed out the door....BOY WAS IT AMAZING!!......not only did I feel great finally running on pavement again, but I also ran a faster 3 miles than usual....when I got back to my apartment I caught the sun coming up making the whole sky this beautiful orange-red color (see image above). Cannot wait for my long run tomorrow.