cussin' and runnin'

I cussed a lot on today's 9-mile run. It was hard...kind of. There were parts where I wasn't sure my body could go another inch but I'd just push it and it would go. Running is a huge mental game and today, my mental game was not at it's peak. This is not to say it was a bad run. It wasn't. It was just that my body was tired from vacation and not sleeping much last night (worried my alarm wouldn't go off and guess what? It didn't!)

I met Maria and Susan at 6am and we headed out. The first mile was a killer and I swear my legs were doing really wonky things. I finally got into my groove and just whisked away the miles. We GUed at 3.5 and 6.5 which was perfect. I needed my GU.

The hardest part about this trail that we do out and back is the last freaking hill before you hit the apartments. It's pretty much straight up and deary, it's tough. We didn't walk AT ALL during the entire run but on the hills, we were going pretty slow.

Luckily, Susan told me when we were at 8 miles (my plan called for 8 today) but I decided what's another mile? And then, as soon as I made that decision for myself who do we hear behind us? Our coach!! Thank goodness I didn't stop. She was very complimentary saying that we looked like we'd just started -- yeah right. I slowed down a little during that last mile because I knew the big ass GA hill was coming up and I wanted to run it...not walk it.

At the end, I felt good but now, I'm really stiff. My hip flexors are KILLING me. I need to go take some ibuprophen, I think.

I loved being on vacation but I love being back in the swing of my routine even more. And a 9 mile run on the first day back was just what the doctor ordered!

5 miles coming up on Tuesday. I'm gonna try hard not to cuss.