Discipline

Marathon training, I am told, requires a great deal of personal discipline.

This week, I have been lacking a little in this department. And it's been great.

Monday evening, the wife and I decided to have dinner at a local restaurant, and then returned home to watch a (surprisingly disappointing) movie. By the time it was over, it was much later than I had intended to go to bed. Add to this that I simply couldn't sleep, and it was well after 2:00 before I drifted off. Thus, early morning came too quickly. It would be a lunch hour run for me once again.

The good news was that, due to my taper, it was only a 6-mile run, which makes it relatively easy. I let myself settle into what I felt was an easy pace and my legs worked on their own.

However, it was not a run without consequence. Somewhere around 3 miles, my body suddenly remembered that it had been given Mexican food the night before, and it decided to punish me for this. As I'm sure you don't really want the details, just allow me to say that I feel Austin should have more numerous and better-maintained porto-johns. It was not a fun last few miles.

That being said, the run was great. Without trying to be, I was right around my goal pace for Seattle pretty much the entire way. It was hot, but it didn't bother me too much. I felt like I could have run many more miles, but I was glad that I didn't have to. I finished in a pretty good time, and then went back to work, refreshed and energetic.

Any my energy didn't stop there. We made a run to the store that afternoon, after which we were invited to go watch a (surprisingly exciting) basketball game with a number of great friends. This again led me to a later-than-recommended bedtime, and again led to me not getting up to run this morning.

However, I made the decision to relax a bit this morning. It's an easy swap, today's five for tomorrow's rest day. I've only got four to run on Friday, and then 12 on Saturday.

If I had more discipline this week, I would have gone to bed earlier, gotten up right on time, and finished my miles before work. Also, I would have missed out on two really enjoyable evenings. Sometimes, you have to let yourself go. I want to run through my life, not past it.

I'll make it up tomorrow.

Tuesday's Run:
85 Degrees / Sunny
6.01 Miles
42 Minutes, 21 Seconds