Some Days Are Harder ...

On today's agenda ... the 11-mile run.

Working against today's agenda ...

• The loss of the "spring ahead" sleep hour
• The inability to run right away when I woke up due to a work committment at 7:30 a.m.
• The change in pre-run routine/delayed run start which included eating breakfast, making a veggie lasagna and watching an episode of Mad Men
• Last night's steak dinner sitting in my gut ...
• ... Which may or may not been the cause of a funny tummy
• An unenthusiastic attitude
• Sore knees

There are days that are just harder than others. Today was one of them.

It surely wasn't a pretty run. It wasn't a fun run. Maybe it wasn't a "run" at all. It was more like a slog. 

In fact, it took a long time, with most of it coming at a slow pace of 5.6 mph. It included about one total mile of walking sprinkled intermittently throughout, in 0.2-0.3-mile increments. It also included two bathroom breaks and one water break.

But it's done. I finished. To say I'm all in would be an understatement.

If you look at a half marathon training plan, you'll see that I'm a little ahead of schedule for a May 2 race. My assumption going in was that I was going to need some extra prep time because I haven't been training as hard as I should or as long as I should in the months leading up to now. I also planned a little cushion to work around a few life events: a colonoscopy in mid-March, a trip to Louisville at the end of March, etc.

Because of all that, I'm not freaking out about having a bad week. Honestly, it's good mental training. What if about a mile in on race day, I can tell that it's an "off" day?

Still have to finish. Some days, that's victory enough.