Accomplished

Remember how I only logged 6 miles two weeks ago?

This past week I logged 23.5 miles. That's right, folks. I deserve a medal or something. Or maybe just a comment telling me how incredibly amazing I am. Or maybe a comment where you say, "Seriously? 23.5 miles? Is that all you got? You ain't got nothin' on me!" I need a little humbling after weeks like that.

It all has to do with giving myself a schedule. This was my thought process one week ago:

"Christy, you have to run 9.3 miles in 3 weeks. Can you even run 6 without passing out right this minute? GET YOUR ASS TO THE GYM!"

And so it went. I got my behind to the gym and I even managed to throw in a couple of strength workouts into those 23.5 miles. I am sore all over, but it feels great. I did a long run of 7 miles on Saturday, and this coming Saturday I hope to do an 8-mile long run. I'm still pretty slow -- I finished my 7-miler in a little over 74 minutes, which isn't *gasp* horrible, but it's not where I want to be. I just have to face up to the fact that this is going to take time to get back where I want to be as far as my speed goes.

And since this 15K will be my first, I'm guaranteed to PR (I love running new distances!!), and if I'm slow, it'll just give me a time to beat.

Going back to training schedules, I got all gung-ho and created my training schedule for the Wasatch Back Relay and the Disney World Marathon. Sure, the marathon training doesn't begin until September, but my Wasatch Back training should've started about 3 weeks ago. Because of my awesome procrastination skills, that training will commence in approximately 12 hours.

I love having a training schedule. It gives me motivation. And maybe I'm a little strange, but I really like having that single sheet of paper to monitor my progress. I get all giddy inside when I get to cross off a successful training day. It's pure satisfaction when, at the end of your training, you see all those X's covering the entire sheet of paper.