Moving forward...

Week 6 of Training
(I started Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Training awhile back. Before I went on vacation, I finished up Week 8. I am now going back to Week 6 just to get my mental confidence back.)

Total Miles: 16.91 miles
Longest Distance: 6 miles

Apparently going on vacation has made more of an impact on my motivation than I first thought. This past week has been HARD, both physically and mentally. Honestly, I think the mental aspect of running is what really messes me up. All it takes is one negative thought:

"This is stupid, why are you doing this?"

Yep, that is what got to me on Tuesday when I was running. I thought I could handle pushing myself in the heat, but soon found that I was gravely mistaken. For the first time in my short running life, I got sick. By sick, I mean I yakked. Yep, I will not be snacking on baby carrots for awhile. After spewing orange chunks (sorry for the visual), I decided that I was done. Some people may have felt better after throwing up, but all it did to me was piss me off and made me question the whole point of it.

Of course, I felt guilty when I got back home. Then Tim shows up after running a trillion miles and still smiling. I talked to him about how crappy running has been lately and he assured me that even he, Roadrunner Rock Star, has bad days. I just need to make a point to not let them get too me and just move forward.

On a happy note, my long run this week was great! Tim & I met his sister, Leah, and cousin, Jaime, to run on Saturday morning. They have signed up for the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon and have also recently gotten into running. Running with them made me realize how awesome it is to run with folks that are having the same struggles, but continue to move forward. Jaime rolled her ankle the night before and still got up before 6am to run 6 miles. Leah has been battling blisters on her feet because of running, and there she was, bright-eyed and ready to knock out the miles. As we ran, we talked about how exciting the race is going to be, the problems we are having, the miles we still have to go...

Thirteen point one miles. Nuts. When I really think about it, I honestly can't wait. It's going to be awesome.