No Double Digits

Posted: August 27, 2011 at 9:58 am

Good morning!! Have you managed to enjoy yourself so far? Perhaps sleep in a bit or have a leisurely morning reading blogs, snuggling your children/furbabies? Or were you like me – waking up at 5:30 am to eat so you can start your long run of the week by 6:30 am? Good times. Good times.

I’m not going to lie to you. That run…ick. All because of that pesky half mile dangling off the end of those nine miles.

When setting out for my run, reaching 9.5 miles – half a mile longer than my previous personal distance record – didn’t seem daunting at all. Then, as I got going, the thought having to do an extra half of a mile seemed brutal. It felt cruel to have to give that extra effort…but not get the super high from hitting double digits! Don’t ask how my mind works that it would have seemed easier to do a 10 mile run instead of a 9.5 mile run. Logic fails me sometimes.

I could have ran an extra half to hit the ten mile mark, but I like to stick to the plan when it comes to long runs. Okay…I honestly just didn’t want to have to find somewhere to run around and rack up the extra mileage. I had my route planned out to the tee to help me get right at 9.5 miles. I even went so far to make certain I would get the ugly main road portion of my run out of the way first and have the last few miles to go through prettier neighborhood scenery.

Too bad that thought process of having the pretty part to look forward to failed me. I had to go past where I parked for the last 1.5 mile loop. It about killed me seeing my car and then having to wave bye-bye to finish up after already feeling so tired. My mind had checked out! And that made my body check out too because the last 1.5 were quite brutal. The joy of breakfast awaiting me after getting home pushed me through. 

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Immediately after getting home I poured both sample boxes of the Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal we received at the Healthy Living Summit into a bowl and added a large handful of blueberries and raisins. All topped off with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. Ahhhhh

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I heart cereal!!! I think Peter felt a little disheartened that I wouldn’t share a box with him. Sorry, bud. You don’t want to mess with a hungry runner’s breakfast!

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Go ahead and laugh. Lisa – I know you are since you say I don’t have a mean bone in my body. Winking smile Oh well…I have other ways to frighten Peter. Like bringing up quinoa. Oh, if he only knew what was coming his way next week. *insert evil cackle here*

  • Do you have a fitness milestone you can’t wait to reach? I am so looking forward to hitting double digit runs! Hopefully next weekend!
  • Do you plan the favorite parts of your workouts towards the beginning or end of your workout?

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40 Comments to “No Double Digits”
  1. Ha! Love that pic!!!

    I am sure you will hit double digits next week!!!

    My fav part of my workout I save for the end

  2. Amy @ SGTC says:

    I love that picture of you! Hilar. Congrats on pushing through the long run! 🙂

  3. Amy Lauren says:

    Congrats on your run! 9.5 miles is awesome, even if the last part of it sucked, you made it through and that’s what counts. And if you’re already able to run 9.5 miles you will beast through your half, my longest pre-half marathon run was 11 miles and that one SUCKED… I had like 2-3 really good 10 milers though. You’ll do awesome in the half, seriously.

    Yeah- my milestone is that I hope to beat my last time in my next half marathon.

    My husband and I would fight over oatmeal squares too because that’s the best cereal ever! And your bowl makes me hungry and I have a little sample so I may eat that later on today!

  4. Lauren @ Forward is a Pace says:

    Oh my goodness, how cute is your mean face?

    Congrats on your personal distance record! I plan the best parts towards the end too – it’s great motivation!

    Goose and I had our first long run for half marathon training with Team Challenge today. 🙂 We had so much fun!

  5. You GO girl!! 9.5 is awesome!
    I remember feeling the same way while training for my 1/2. Adding on even a little bit seemed to be huge once you got over like 7 miles.

  6. Congrats on 9.5 miles! That’s awesome….sorry though that those last 1.5 miles were tough. I ran 8 miles for the first time ever yesterday! The last two miles were kind of brutal on my knees…I’m not really sure how to prevent knee pain, but oh well. I did it :). Love your “mean” picture haha

  7. Marcia says:

    Good morning!
    I am ruining the trend here ( everyone above me is named Amy, Lindsey or Laury!) 😉
    Great run girl!
    My biggest milestone was when I first hit 20 miles and my fitness comp. Very cool days for me!
    I save the best for last usually!
    have a great weekend.

  8. Not every run can be great, but glad you got your 9.5 in! I try to plan routes that leave the “best” part for last too. Anything that can help you get through the last miles helps, even if it doesn’t always work 😉 I actually can’t wait to get back up to double digits again after almost a year off from them. The thought excites me now, even though I’m sure it won’t as I’m running it!

  9. Lauren says:

    Great job on the run! I feel the same way…those .5 miles are sometimes the hardest to reach. I never understood why they seem so much harder than the full mile.

  10. girl, i know exactly what you mean about sticking to the plan. if i have a plan i’m doing EXACTLY WHAT’S ON THE PLAN and if i don’t? i have to do increments of .5 miles or else i feel kind of freaked out and lost. don’t ask. 🙂

  11. Helen says:

    Congrats on the run! Love the mean face….and I can’t wait to see what that evil cackle is all about!

  12. Diana says:

    You are going to CRUSH the double digits next week!! Can’t wait to hear how it goes! 🙂

  13. Carissa says:

    You’re amazing! My goal is to get to where I can run 10 minute miles. I’m getting closer!

  14. I plan my running loop right now so that I go up a hill first, and I get a good view of the state Capitol. Then I plan it so the last half mile or so is more down hill–it makes me feel fast haha. I am also super weird about not going out and back the same way. A loop seems so much better so I have more fun things to look at!

  15. Kara says:

    Running past the car is hard! I try to only do that at a halfway point so I can refill water. Otherwise I’m like “Eh, what’s a mile or two going to matter?” 🙂

    Great job, you’re almost to the double digits!

  16. Liz says:

    Haha, does your husband hate quinoa or something? Wait.. how can you hate quinoa? It’s so fun!

    You’ll get to the double digits soon enough – 9.5 is still awesome – longer than a 15k!

  17. That is one heck of a run! Congrats! Love how blue those blueberries look 🙂

  18. Good for you to get up and get your workout in early! I know it can especially be hard on the weekend! Way to go!

  19. After I read your post, I ran upstairs to my swag bag from HLS and grabbed one of the Oatmeal Squares boxes. and I am so, very glad I did. That cereal is tastey! I had it with a sliced banana and milk.

    loving that picture of you! you go girl 🙂

  20. Shannon ~ My Place In The Race says:

    This is a great post 😀 Awesome job on the run. I often have to run past my car (or in circles around it) trying to get in that last little bit. Grrrr…

  21. cheryl says:

    i did a half once…pre-evil-back. i hadn’t trained well or anything and it was 90+ and humid despite being late-Sept in MA. and rolling hills. and the first race i’d ever run and my first real outside run (i’m a TM girl). time = 2.01.57. i KNOW that’s great for the circumstances but i SO get your half mile bug ’cause i HATE those 2min!! there were zero clocks on the race or i’d have taken one shorter walk break!

  22. Great job on the run!! I HATE not seeing even numbers on my Garmin. I did 8.5 a few weeks (months?) ago and it was hard not to ditch my group and finish up that last half mile!

    I did get to sleep in today (till 7:30 – that’s sleeping in, right?) but I will be up at 2:45 tomorrow!!

    I can’t wait to read the 20 mile mark – TOMORROW! Eek! It’s amazing how prepared I feel. 20 miles? Totally in the bag. I year ago I was questioning why people ran more than 10 miles. I’m pretty sure running makes you insane.

  23. Bari says:

    I think you did great this week! You pushed through even when you weren’t really feeling it.

    I hit my fitness milestone this morning – my first 18 mile run!!!

    PS-your cereal looks yummy.

  24. Woohoo – nice job on the run and when you do start hitting those long distances, it’s good to play it safe. Build up slowly. Though, I know how the mind games work – so I’ll do stuff like it’s 9.5 what’s another 1/2 a mile, no biggy. But man oh man sometimes it is!

  25. Maren says:

    I think the same way and probably would have made it 10. Good job running that long run though. Major props for doing 9.5 miles before 10am 😀

  26. I always save the pretty part of my run for last!

  27. Heather says:

    You’re a rock star! I’m the same way when it comes to plans – I like to follow it to the letter or it just feels so WRONG!

  28. Nice run Tina! I did 9.5 today too… I planned out 10 though and there was some construction and flooding on my route. I was ok with cutting it a bit short though 🙂
    That Quaker cereal is so good! Did you see the coupons on the sample boxes? I already used them and bought 2 full sized boxes. Yum yum yum!

  29. That’s crazy awesome Tina! It’s but only a half-mile though! You can tack that on next week no prob. Do you want to run it consectuvitely? Or what if you just took a few walk breaks?

  30. Jess says:

    Ha. One of our long run routes takes us past the road that leads back to our house and it is SO killer to run past it and think “OMG I still have three miles to go before I see that road again??” On our longest run (12 miles), we didn’t see that road for almost 5 miles. It was brutal!! But it also kind of broke up the longevity of the run in a weird way. Can’t wait to get my long runs in again as I continue to train for the half in Oct. Yippee!!! NICE job on your long run friend! While you were running, I was up and at ’em helping Jo pack. I was with you in spirit, sweating away, trust me. 😉

  31. For your love of cereal you should make one of those graphic tees saying I <3 Cereal – and then on the back – it's mine, all mine!

  32. Kiah says:

    Haha I love that “mean” pic–we all have a mean bone somewhere 🙂 Someone taking my food definitely racks high on my list!

  33. Jess says:

    I’m looking forward to running my first half in two weeks! Which, unfortunately, is up hill for the last three miles…talk about torture.

    We were up and out around the same time you were this morning to get our last long run in 🙂

  34. OMG thats amazing, Tina!! congrats on your distance! i cannot imagine running that far! you must feel amazing, and damn right you should! Fitness milestone? I want to PLACE in this show that I have in 4 weeks!!

  35. Sara says:

    Good job on toughing out your run! Think how much easier it will be to do 9.5 miles next time when you don’t have to see your car.

  36. You are amazing! What a great run. I am supremely jealous right now as my knee has been bothering me unexpectedly. That bowl of cereal looks freaking awesome.

  37. good job tina! what a great run!

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