Day 1: Priorities Assessed

Zzzzzzz - I am still asleep.

Not really.

What a day. I am pooped and it is not even 8 AM yet. Here is the situation.

My fabulous Coach Terry made me a marvelous training plan for my upcoming 5K (see post from yesterday) and the training starts today. Well... I am feeling like a piece of taffy. I am being stretched in all directions today! Here's the skinny:

With minimal snoozing I was up at *gasp* 4:06 AM. Yes, 4:06 AM. You see, there are three priorities in my life that require time: my work, my spouse and myself (i.e. running!) Today it is necessary to satisfy requirements for all three areas. You see, one of my husband's oldest friends is getting married tomorrow (yay!) and we have to leave mid-afternoon for northern Louisiana. I can not be late getting home. So that means that I have to leave work early. Not wanting to use any vacation time (as I am practically down to mere minutes...) means that I have to get to work early. (And I am *working* right now, as you can tell. LOL) So, that means that the running had to be pre-dawn! Thus, the 4:06 AM wake-up call.

I arrived at the high school track ASAP. Thankfully, it is lined with lights. There's not enough light to read my Garmin, exactly, but plenty for me to detect anyone or anything that might be lurking about. FYI. So I did a 1-mile warmup and proceeded to try to be Lightning McSusan for 800 meters! The Coach urged me to try to really nail the first set. I was, for once, really concerned with form, stride length, arms, shoulders, etc. I was to do (6) 800's at a 9:30 pace. That's 4:45 per 800. *gasp*

The first one was clocked at 4:23. Yowsa! It didn't feel like I was flying. But I was feeling good. Really good. And, again, I couldn't really see my Garmin. As I did my recovery lap, I remembered him saying to try not to walk during recovery. I did not walk!

The second one was clocked at 5:05. Ick! But that's typical of me, unfortunately. Go out hard and lose steam. (I did NOT do that at the Soldier Field 10 Mile race, by the way. Yay me!) I admit - I confess - I just had to walk some after this one. I know, I know - 20 lashes with a wet noodle.

The third one was clocked at a slightly better 5:00. And then more walking. At this point, folks, I was honestly thinking of throwing in the towel and heading home to get a jump on my jam-packed day. But I thought to myself "What would the Coach think? What would your running blog friends think? Come on - you have at least one more left in you." And I did. But did I mention that my left hamstring was talking to me? Yep. But I was able to stretch it out for some relief.

The fourth one (and final one, I'm sad to report) was done at 5:19. Double yuck! I recovered after that and got my rear in gear to move on to the next priority: getting to work early.

In retrospect, I certainly feel that giving all important areas at least a little attention is far better than ignoring something that is important to you. So, today can be chalked up to plain-and-simple 'doing the best I can given the circumstances'!!!!