Memorial Day Weekend/Workout Recap

 

I started my holiday weekend Friday afternoon at Red Mango because the layers of red and blue berries had me feeling all festive and ready for Memorial Day.

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I changed my mind about running the Long Beach 10 miler race this morning and I really don’t regret it!

I ran long yesterday morning instead…right before meeting Michele at the mall!

We had such a good time! I promise to fill you in a bit more this week.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at my workouts from the last six days…

*Monday*

Pure Barre Mile High & 5.25 Easy Miles – My arms were a little sore from kickboxing on Sunday, sort of in the area of where you would work yourself from lots of push-ups so I skipped the push ups and short arm section at the beginning of the Pure Barre DVD.

 

*Tuesday*

8 Miles – I went to bed looking forward to my run in the morning and woke up not in the mood.

What?! Not in the mood? Yeah, it doesn’t happen often but I recognized the feeling: nothing hurt, maybe I was tired, the weather was gloomy and I really didn’t feel like pushing myself.

Tuesdays are usually a quick-paced running day but I am not a machine which means sometimes I won’t feel up to it.

Instead of skipping my run, I took all pressure off and told myself to just run and see what happens. If I wasn’t feeling it, I would go home (which 99.9% of the time never happens but telling yourself you can go home is good enough to get you out there).

Considering how I thought I felt, things turned out just fine. Not as quick as usual but I stayed pretty consistent and enjoyed myself.

*Wednesday*

3 Easy Miles & Pure Barre Studio Series DVD – I had zero intentions of running today but I took an early morning business call and decided to run easy while chatting away (I am lucky enough to work with one of my best friends who doesn’t mind me running while we talk).

*Thursday*

8 Miles – My loose plan was 3 miles negative, 1 mile recovery, 3 miles negative, 1 mile cool down.

Except for one mile being up by 5 seconds (that’s what you get for deciding to change songs on your phone), I was right on target.

 

*Friday*

Pure Barre Studio Series DVD – I thought I would head to gym for the elliptical but didn’t feel like it so I skipped it!

*Saturday*

15 Miles – Average pace @ 8:47

It was real sunny and crisp outside which was great but my hands were frozen the entire 15 miles.

Over and over, I kept thinking to myself that only half of me was into this run.

Isn’t that an odd thought? I can’t even fully explain it but it’s what I kept thinking. My pace was holding steady, I felt great and pretty strong yet part of me was disinterested and ready to be done.

I contemplated running 16 miles before I headed outside. I quickly dropped that idea down to the usual 13 for no real reason other than I didn’t feel like it.

I assumed that maybe at that 13-mile mark I would continue to 14 but as usual, told myself not to think about it until I got to that point.

When I got to 13, I easily went to 14. When I reached 14, I asked myself why I was stopping since I wasn’t hungry, wasn’t exhausted and honestly felt as though I could keep going if I slowed down a bit.

So that’s what I did for one more mile.

Seriously, running is all mental. Long runs are a true journey through your mind each week where you learn how to negotiate with yourself, figure out how to never give up but when to give in and totally help you to build mental toughness.

The running part is just an added bonus 🙂

*Sunday*

Rest!

Although I may take a stroll on the boardwalk….

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

[bctt tweet=”Memorial Day weekend/workout recap #running #longrun #purebarre @paleorunningmama”]

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Any fun holiday plans today or tomorrow?

If you ran long this weekend, how was it?

Are you baking/cooking anything to bring to a barbecue today? If so, please tell me what?!