Not every run...

Not every run can be awesome.  Not every run will inspire you to keep going.  Not every run will feel light and springy and effortless. 

But that's okay.  Because not every run will have you gasping 100 yards into it, struggling to put one foot in front of the other, heaving your weighted carcass across the sidewalk step by excruciating step.  Not every run will end in a lightheaded jumble two miles from your starting point, leaving you wondering what on earth you forgot to do (like, maybe, eat?).

These things balance out.  Most runs are nice, middle of the road, doable runs.  It's the work we put into it to get those lovely advances in our speed, strength, and svelte-ness.  Some are absolutely fantastic - they leave you singing praises to the Creator for this beautiful planet and these wonderful bodies that let us enjoy it all.  And some... some we wish to never speak of again.

Not every run can be fantastic.  And not every run will be miserable. 

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Not that today's run was anything so absolutely terrible as all that.  It was just a very tired run, with a messed up schedule.  I ate a poor breakfast, but it was timed for a noon run.  It wasn't until 11:45 am that I remembered I was scheduled to be on a conference call for the noon hour.  I literally had my bag in hand, headed for the ladies' room, when the reminder popped on the screen.  (AAAUGH!!!)  So instead I grabbed my sandwich and refilled my water.  That turned out to be my big mistake - when I did finally get out at 1:30 pm, that sandwich was stuck in my gut.  I also underestimated how tired I was from the kids' swim meet this weekend - a weekend of super-early wakeups, managing anxious, sometimes-cranky, sometimes-elated youngsters (our own and many many others - the swim community is one big family, after all) and randomly getting drafted for various "volunteer" duties I thought I'd avoided this weekend (which ended up being fun, and not too egregious, it was just not planned for).

Hmm... "Not planned for."  That sums up a large part of what derails me.  I plan things.  Carefully.  I even plan for when I'm going to take things easy, be spontaneous, decide on the fly.  Here's a week where I'm just going to go with the flow and see how it goes.  Back to normal schedule next week.  I think I'm just really understanding as I type how very goofy that looks. Heh heh...

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Speaking of plans... I have no idea what or when I'm running this week.  This is the first "post-swim season" week when the schedule is all jumbled, the usual patterns are ignored, and everything is topsy-turvy.  The boy won't be going to evening practices, so I don't have my built-in run window - which means, I will probably have to find a different way to plan those in.  Probably the same thing, just run right after work on the way home.  Soon he will have baseball practice, which ought to afford me the opportunity to get a run in.  But this week will be an odd mix of creating that spontaneous space AND still trying to make mileage goals.  I guess we'll see how it works...

Run #1: 4 miles, mid two at tempo pace
Run #2: 5 miles, negative split
Run #3: 3 miles easy
Run #4: Long run, 8-10 miles

We won't count today's run unless we have to (it was 2.5 miles @ 10 min pace).  I want a mulligan.