The Plan. Purposeful.

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  Hebrews 12:11

10 days post Marathon. My body is still not where I want it to be. But don't feel sorry for me because I am running and proper recovery would not allow that.

**The rule of thumb is for the distance that you race you should take HALF that time off and allow your body to recover. 

**One of the biggest recovery tools is SLEEP. I just watched a video of Desi Linden, Olympian and Boston Marathon winner and she said she sleeps about 12 HOURS a DAY. 
-------I am lucky to get 6 hours. I am the WORST bed partner. I flip, dip, turn, get up and turn pillows.

Today is Andys 45 birthday. It is his day. And he wanted me to run with him. I was scared. Andy has been a man on a mission. His mission meant my suffering.

THE PLAN: Run trails. Holly Rec. Wilderness loop.  6miles. Sub 1hour 5min.
Run a SECOND loop with Claudia as a cool down.

Maybe I should have consulted with Claudias plan as well.....

LOOPS ONE: Andy and I.
I warned Andy out of the gate. I was not going to be much for chit chat. And if Grunting was considered conversation then I guess I lied.

My lungs burned up the hills. My sore hamstring stayed in the shadow lands. But my legs kept up. My watch would beep at each mile and I got so excited to see how well we were running. I had not ran this pace on the trails in months, maybe even a year.  It was worth all the pain. We ran most of the hills and the longer hills we ran most of them until my chest was heaving and my ears were ringing and walking still hurt.
At mile 5, I did some simple math, the only thing simple I was capable of at that time, and discovered at the pace we were at we would be finishing below our goal. I was so excited.
I was also very concerned. That I would be crawling with Claudia and ruin her run.

We came out of that loop, drum roll please...1H 3min!

LOOP TWO: Claudia and I.

Claudia was chick on a MISSION. And I didn't get the memo. She took out of the trails like a horse out of the barn.
I knew after a mile I was DOOMED. My body was SCREAMING profanities at me. At mile 4, Claudia left me in the dust! I waved her to go ahead. I knew I could maintain my pace but she had actually picked her pace up.  I hadn't seen this Claudia on the trails in a long time. I loved it, I just couldn't keep up with it.
We never paused, or stopped. Until I twisted my ankle. I am pretty sure my ankle did a full out exorcist style twist. I stopped my watch and in TYPICAL Anita fashion, forgot to start it up after we started back up again, about 2minutes.
I tried my best to stay with her but she was pulling away.
She ran up a hill about a tenth of a mile ahead of me. I looked down trying to maintain my pace. When I looked up Claudia was breathless waiting for me. She wasn't even sweating!
I giggled to myself. BEASTMODE. That girl was on FIRE and my whole body felt like it was BURNING with FIRE.
We didn't stop. I got to her and we were off. We were focused and on a mission. Even when we walked it was a brisk power walk up the hills.
I looked at my watch about a mile and a half from finishing. "WOW, Claudia, we are on target for a 1hour 5min loop."
I was determined to bring it in.
I was soooo EXCITED....1H 6min.

I finished both loops in less than 2 hours and 10 minutes!

I had many moments in that 12 miles that I questioned myself and my body. I flirted with a some excuses to not give as much effort. However, each time I looked at the clock, I looked at my miles, I was encouraged by what I was capable of.
The is a lot of pleasure in the pain of hard work and discipline.
The trails were saturated with the most picturesque shots. I wanted to stop and take a photo and of course catch my breath.
But we only stopped when I twisted my ankle.

The fun part really was equally present. No, we didn't laugh as much as we normally do, joke or prance through the trails.
The fun came in the suffering. The run was quieter, intentional but the joy came in the results. I was SOO EXCITED.

Claudia and I caught our breath and took a few minutes to take a few photos of the Lake Loop.

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,"

Todays run was a good reminder that not everything is meant to feel GOOD all the time. We have many moments that we have to be disciplined and often times later we are glad we were.
"Joy comes in the Morning"
I know for me I have a lot more than my miles to work on. I am very grateful for the push today from both Andy and Claudia.

Anita