Deals with the Devil

I woke up with an upset stomach this morning and did not feel like running my planned 16 miles 🙁 After a trip or two to the restroom I decided to buck up and get out the door!

Pre-run I had a sandwich thin with Almond Butter. I felt like I ate a lot last night (cereal after dinner and such) that I didn’t need too much running fuel. I think that theory is incorrect as indicated by my lack of energy the entire time.

Last weekend I ran 15 miles in : 2:17 with an average pace of 9:06

This weekend I ran 14 miles in: 2:10 with an average pace of 9:20

I definitely did some things wrong last night and today to account for today’s rough run.

Because I wasn’t feeling good from the start, I did what any runner does when they’re not feeling a run – I started making deals with the devil…

1. Ignore the devil. First I tried to ignore the icky, tired feeling I had and just get to it. I went through all the motions of getting ready and getting out the door even though I didn’t feel like running today.

When I could no longer ignore the crappy feelings I

2. Tried to talk myself up. “You can do it! You had a great run last weekend!” and my favorite “There will be a day when you can no longer do this, today is not that day.”

But, that didn’t help since I was already “checked out” so I had to resort to…

3. Praying. Pray that you will have the strength to finish. Pray that you can do it. Pray that it will all be over soon. Just try it.

But, my doubt and the devil were strong today 🙁 So I started making deals with the devil.

4. (In my head) “Okay, I was supposed to do 16 miles at a 9:06 pace today, but I am hitting every mile around 9:30. This is not going to happen…

I am only going to do 13.1 miles instead. Yeah, I’ll run a half today. That should be okay. I’ll just make sure to do 17 miles next weekend…”

And that my friends is how I made a deal with the devil myself to cut my run this morning. I ended up doing 14 miles, but every single mile was rough. I never snapped out of the crappy feeling, my legs felt like lead and I had no energy the whole time. But, at least I made a 14 miler deal and didn’t just turn around and come home.

I’m okay with it.

I came home to the best Post-run breakfast though!

Post-Run Pina Colada

  Ingredients:

1 cup of Oikos Greek Yogurt in Honey flavor

1 cup frozen pineapple

1 cup Coconut Water

2 Tb. sweetened shredded coconut

Ice to desired thickness

Directions: Throw all ingredients in a blender and blend it up. Add ice if you want it thicker. Garnish with a piece of frozen pineapple and coconut. Enjoy!

This is the most amazing recovery smoothie because of the protein in the yogurt (it’s always on my recommended post run meals) and electrolytes in the coconut water. Oh, and it tastes amazing!!!

For some reason it’s even better when enjoyed pool side 😉

This is my entry for the HLS Stonyfield contest 🙂 Because of rules and laws I have to add the following…

Disclosure: This entry is for the Healthy Living Summit Stonyfield Smoothie Contest.  Stonyfield is a sponsor of the Summit, but not this contest.