Perspective

Running puts life in perspective for me. It's therapeutic. I wasn't really planning to run today since yesterday was my long run of 10 miles, but I wasn't in a good mood for most of the afternoon and I knew the only way to get me out of this funk was to run. Before I talk about today's run let's back up to yesterday.

Yesterday's weather forecast called for 98-degree temperatures with the heat index around 110 degrees. That's definitely not running weather (or any activity besides sitting in a pool) so I knew I had to run early or it wasn't going to happen. I woke up at 5:15 to get ready to start running at 6 a.m. I mapped out a course on mapmyrun.com - I always map out or pick these crazy routes that require me to carry directions - who carries directions to run?!??! Here's directions for yesterday's run.

So when I began my run around 6 am it was a cool 77 degrees out. I felt good and I carried a water bottle because I didn't want to have a repeat of last Sunday's epic fail attempt at 10 miles. I finished in 94 minutes.

Here's a look at the morning sunrise!

Onward!

So this afternoon I was feeling a bit funky. I was in a bad mood and was sort of frustrated about a few things. Where does a girl find a nice, educated, respectful, successful, intelligent man these days?! Whatever! I decided the only way I was going to get out that funk was to go running. One of my coworkers gave me a pair of Nike Free 5.0s. I've been wearing them around and ran on the treadmill with them once but haven't run outside with them on yet. I know this sounds silly, but I felt like they made me run faster! They are really lightweight - I was running on clouds! I ran 5.25 miles in 44:38. The temperature was cool and by the end of my run my mind was clear of nonsense.

This week my long run is 12 miles. The next two weeks will increase in mileage before a slight dip and then we head back up again. It's going to start getting interesting.

That's all for now!

Until next time,

Peace. Love. Run.