Relaxation and a 12 mile run.

So that title pretty much sums up my day.  I could probably just post that and no words and you'd probably get the jist of my day, but I'll keep going in more detail.  Because that's how I roll.

I literally remember my mom asking me what happened in an episode of Friends when I was younger and I started going into excessive detail explaining the episode.  She was like, "Uhhh, Kate, I just need like a 2-sentence recap."  This is when I first learned of my tendency to be incredibly verbose.  Probably why I like blogging, because I can write as much as I want and you can't do anyyyything about it!

I slept in this morning and had a hard time pulling myself out of bed at about 10:30.  In my defense, I was 3 hours behind because I returned from the West Coast yesterday!  I stretched out a bit and had some breakfast, which isn't my norm for pre-running but I knew I needed a well fueled system for my 12 mile run today.  I had some breakfast which consisted of yogurt, gluten gree granola, lots of freeze dried fruit, and some chia seeds.

Once it digested and I suited up, I head out on my run!  We received a couple inches of snow last night and it was that awkward amount of snow where nobody is really going to shovel their walkways and will just wait for it to melt. However, being that it was just the morning after, the sidewalks were all still pretty much covered with compact snow.  I also had been out running in warm weather for the past week and was nervous about returning to cold weather running with a 12-miler.

As soon as I started running I had that terrible feeling of running in the cold where it hurts your chest.  I hadn't felt that way at all running so far this winter so I was really nervous that it was going to be a terrible run.  However, luckily, it went away after a couple of miles.

The run went well, but it was definitely chilly and the packed snow was tough.  I tried to mentally think of the run as four 3-mile runs and just tried to get myself through one at a time.  I definitely needed to talk myself through a lot of the run and found myself repeating mantras, which I haven't done in a while, but helps me at times.

When I was running through some of the hillier parts of the run today I found myself using the mantra I used in the Nashville Half Marathon of "Survive the hills. Pace the race. You're finishing this thing."  Since it wasn't a race, I switched it to "Pace the run."  My mom had sent me a text message of encouragement where she told me to just pick a comfortable pace and do my best.  It's funny, when I was reusing that mantra, I started thinking about that Nashville race and how amazing it felt to finish it.  I seriously could have lived off of that high forever.  I didn't believe I could accomplish that, and it was such a defining moment in my life when I did.  I started getting choked up a little bit during the run today thinking about it.  It reminded me of this image I saw on Facebook the other day that says "I never knew how strong I was until I became a runner."

Although I still have a hard time really calling myself a runner, this couldn't be more true for me.  So during the run today I started telling myself, "Your legs are strong. Your legs are powerful. YOU are strong. YOU are powerful." over and over.

It took me 2:08:48 BUT I finished the 12 miles today and felt really accomplished afterwards!

The 12 miles was the major accomplishment/plan of the day.  I spent the rest of the day relaxing, doing some grocery shopping, watching football, and cleaning up my apartment a bit.  Tomorrow I've got some more cleaning to do, cooking with that food I bought, errands to run (need to fix those broken glasses!) and on my run today I realized that I need new sneakers.   So busy agenda!

And finally -- I am happy to report that I tracked everything I ate today on my Weight Watchers app because now that I'm home I really need to get back in gear.  I ate +12 points today but according to the app, I earned 25 points running.  So I'm pretty happy that I didn't do what I usually do in, "Since I ran today, I can eat the whole world!" and am hoping to string together a few more positive days in a row.  I do not want to rip myself out of my pants in the future!

Today's Eats (for the record...):
Yogurt, granola & fruit -- 10 pts
Apple with 1.5 tbs of almond butter -- 4 pts
Kind Bar -- 6 pts
Big salad with veggies, grilled chicken, olive oil & vinegar -- 9 pts
Angry Orchard hard cider -- 6 pts
2 cups Trader Joe's popcorn -- 4 pts