Perseverance Personified

Man, they totally got it right on the Distant Runners Facebook page today:

My seven miles this morning felt like a marathon!! (as if I know what that feels like, but I know how to extrapolate with the best of 'em, so I bet I get it to a point!) I knew before heading out this was going to feel rough. As if that weren't already enough to put a damper on the morning, Elly did her best to make me feel bad for not taking her:

"I know what getting my picture taken before she goes to the
door means. It means I'm about to be totally abandonded!!"

It was never in the plan to take her. She just didn't know that.

But, in fairness, it wasn't in my plan for the run to be so hard, either, so, I'd say we're even! Let's just say that a week chock full of house projects including a lot of painting (remember the squats/lunges you wind up doing repeatedly getting up and down from a chair ...) and a long run don't mix that well. I kept trying to remind myself that there are tons of others who cross train all the time, then I kept going back to the fact that I'm not one of those people, and even if I were, my legs still hurt today! So, the "yeah, but, others ..." game didn't win today. It never does. You know how I feel about comparing yourself to someone else, anyway ... hardly ever a great idea!

Then, I decided to compare myself to myself. Ahh ... this had more promise. I thought about how I just ran 13.1 miles last Saturday only to turn around this weekend and run seven. I further thought about how this is the third time I've bounced back into weekend long runs/training schedule this year. I've not before been able to pull off one bounce-back like that, much less three. While I know this run was less than stellar (for real ... it was the real deal of a crap run; I have nothing to hide and I know the difference!), I knew I'd be better served cutting myself some slack!

No matter how a run goes, though, there are always some constants like finding money (yay for today's three pennies!) and seeing the sites:

Sadly no longer in flight (it's not like it's
a smushed squirrel or something). But, it's
mighty lovely!

I kinda wanted to see some fairies emerge from the woodland
scene ... don't you?

The happiest view, though, was my end point. That's where I felt like this:

That's not a show ... that's exactly how I
felt in that moment. Unfortunately!

I was pleased to have run the whole distance regardless of how I felt, and, I was further pleased to finish with a built-in cool-down walk to keep things that wanted to cramp and fold in half (ensuring I would not again embark on such activity this morning) loose! I suspect next week's long run will be better. With a whole week and a few short runs in between, things ought to start shaking out to normal very soon.

Today's run was perseverance personified!! That's a victory in and of itself! The next run is Monday, but before that, we rest!! Ahhh ... sleeping innnnnn ... I'll see you after a very long night's rest!