Oh, boy. I did not look forward to my long run this morning. Normally I enjoy the thought of heading out to be alone with my thoughts and to see just what my body can handle. I just wanted to crawl back in bed this morning and whine “Do I haaaaavvvvveeee to?????”.

I loathe the treadmill for any run longer than 4 miles…and I had to crank out TEN on it this morning! That thought killed my long run mood faster than a baby cry can kill other certain moods. I. dreaded. It!

I considered taking my recovery run a week early so I would only have to do 5 or 6 miles on the dreadmill, but then I realized I needed to suck it up cupcake, put on my big girl panties, and just do it. Then, get my revenge letting Peter know allll about my misery having to run on the treadmill because he just has to have a life too.

I brought in the heavy artillery to make me not hate every second of my life for the next 1.5+ hours.

• three magazines - Just in case today happened to be the day I could handle reading and running at the same time. A lofty goal.
• a treadmill with a TV and prayers for a good movie playing on the gym’s “Cardio Cinema” circuit
• some musical friends - Adele, Katy Perry, Glee, Kelly Clarkson, Aerosmith and Toby Mac specifically
• Twitter encouragement
• my game face

It was on like Donkey Kong.

The first four miles went by incredibly quickly. I almost couldn’t believe it and fooled myself into thinking that maybe this whole ten miles on the treadmill thing wouldn’t be so bad. I got a little more antsy between miles 4 and 6 but kept myself distracted with flipping through my magazines. No article reading, but I could look at workouts/recipes or some of the short highlights.

Then the dang treadmill stopped on me!

I kind of expected it to happen since it happened to Heather when she tackled ten treadmill miles last week. It still didn’t change me wanting to drop kick the machine. You know – not only because I was annoyed but also because it would probably break at least one toe and give me a reason not to continue.

I paused to refill my water, down a Gu, and take a fast potty break in the hopes that it would help me fool myself into believing it was a new workout and I was only running four mile. Or more acurately only 3.8 because you know I wasn’t doing more than necessary on the treadmill. Yeaaahhhh. Didn’t work so much. I don’t think four slower miles have ever passed in my life.

But sometimes training isn’t all about the physical challenge. Sometimes you have to overcome the mental challenges too. Today was definitely a “push past your self-doubts” training day. I made it through, but I didn’t like it. I think I deserve a break after all of that. Too bad I know that isn’t going to happen. Ahhhh….life.

• What workouts tend to challenge you mentally?
• What is one of your favorite silly motivational catch phrases? I obviously had a thing for them in this post – “suck it up cupcake”, “put on my your girl panties”, “it’s on like Donkey Kong”…I know I’m special.

I. Ran. Ten. Miles!!!! Reaching that double digit milestone feels oh so good.

And the run itself didn’t feel half bad either!

I woke up while it was still pitch black dark outside and grumbled for not forcing myself to bed earlier last night. How time leaps so suddenly from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm I will never know. It’s mighty hard waking up so early to eat even when you aren’t hungry. But fuel is most important for long runs, so chow down I will!

Don’t you love the high class Instagram-broken-muffin-smooshed-Larabar-on-a-napkin shot? You may sign up for photo lessons with me through my contact page.

Then, after chilling, digesting, and using Twitter to motivate me for an hour, I finally laced up, started my Garmin, strapped on the Spibelt, and took off.

And I survived!

No, really…I survived. Running ten miles was the easy part of this run, it seemed.

When I got to the running path, I opted to go a different direction than my normal route to have some different scenery. This part of the running pathway is a little older and mostly made up of “boardwalks”.

Boards + running = not safe for this klutzo. I tripped six times on my run. I’m thankful I didn’t sprain an ankle and only came out with my confidence bruised a bit.

Although the tripping wasn’t quite as embarrassing as what happened towards the end of my run. After 7.5 miles, things started to get a bit hotter and I went for a big gulp of my water. Note to self: only small sips work while I’m on the move.

The water ended up going down the wrong pipe and left me splurting and coughing with water gushing out of my nose. I should have taken a bow for the show I gave all the other runners passing by.

So, despite almost choking to death (dramatic much?) or almost taking a face plant numerous times, I survived the run and felt on top of the world as I walked back to my car.

See what my shirt says? It most definitely is.

• What time did you wake up this morning?
• Are you a klutz?