A Positive Outlook

Today’s Workout: 8 Miles

Recently, I’ve been really anxious. Work has been crazy – which is usually great, but when I'm feeling stressed, it's mostly terrible. I’ve been dreaming about work almost every single night for the past two weeks. I dream I forgot to prepare for a meeting or think I put in a phone call to work in the middle of the night when I really didn’t… so my sleep to worry ratio has been causing havoc.

While work is generally great and I'm really happy there, yesterday I had one of those unavoidable “bad days.”

I woke up cranky, and couldn’t seem to shake it all day. By the time I finally left work, I was really angry at the world. I wanted to just collapse on my couch and catch up on my DVR, but I had to run 5 miles first. Ugh. Sometimes life is so hard.

But as I was riding the subway home, I realized I shouldn’t be angry with the world at all. I should be celebrating all of the great things in my life. And that’s exactly what I spent my run last night doing.

I left my iPod at home in an effort to clear my mind of work stress, and focus on the positive. Here is what my head came up with:

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Things I’m Thankful For

-My family (They give me so much support and love)

-Keith (He knows how to make me giggle when I’m really cranky and mad)

-Bad days and good days (you can’t have one without the other)

-The Williamsburg Bridge (nothing tests the shape I’m in like that behemoth)

-Autumn (I decided that October is my favorite month. Bring on Halloween and watching Hocus Pocus as much as ABC family allows me to)

-Wine (enough said)



At a winery with Keith!
Wine makes everything O.K. in my book



-Living in New York (this is a cynical one… living anywhere else will seem easy after surviving this city)

-Cold weather running gear (I wore one of my running jackets for the first time since spring last night!!)

-Nail polish (I’m sporting my fave black polish right now. That’s probably all I can share on this point)

-Running

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When I was thinking about why I’m thankful for running, I mentally patted myself on the back for last weekend’s long run.

I ran 15 miles on Saturday – my longest run of 2012!

I decided to run into Manhattan and do a loop of Central Park, since I’ll be running a half-marathon there this weekend. I ran a 10k there in May, and it kicked my butt. So mentally, I wanted to run the course so I would feel confident for the half.

I do 95% of my runs alone, and while my routes in Brooklyn encounter the occasional runner or biker, it’s pretty solitary. Running the outer loop of Central Park sent a shock to my system – so many runners! So many children! So many weirdos! I passed a guy who was running while juggling three baseballs. Awesome.



Proof I ran to Central Park and back.



As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’ve been trying to run the first half of my long runs without music so I’ll get that extra boost when my legs get tired. I had so much visual stimulation in Central Park that I didn’t need my music at all. I still felt really good while running back over the Queensboro Bridge, and realized that I could probably do the whole thing without music. And I did!

15 Beautiful Miles.

I also realized that I only have three long runs left before my taper. It’s exciting but also terrifying, because I fit in more long runs during last year's training. I keep reminding myself that I had a great base going into training, but I’m worried that I’m lacking the long run experience I should have at this point. I guess I will just have to make the most of these last few weeks of peak training, and hope for the best.

The next post will likely be a race report for the half I’m running this weekend - I’m definitely not looking to PR, but I’m hoping use it as sort of a “test run” for the marathon. I’m pumped to get out there and race!!!