Dark O'Clock Run

Yesterday I discovered two things:

First, Tuesday runs are pretty much out of the question. With lectures from 9am-4pm, I am just wiped. It won't work to run after school because it is just too late. I will either be racing home to savor the last few hours of the day with my family, or I will be heading over to the library for study time til it closes at 8 o'clock.

Second, if I want to keep my motivation high and if I want to achieve my goals, I will have days where I'm just going to have to get up early. I guess Tuesday could be one of those days as well, but I'm letting myself off the hook that day just because I know what it entails.

So because last night was Tuesday and I didn't get home until way past my run time, I promised myself I would make up for it by getting up early and running on the treadmill this morning. So I set my alarm for 5:54 (something about setting the alarm a handful of minutes before the time I need to get up "tricks" my brain and I feel better about it for some reason).  Well at 5:15 I woke up! My body was up and ready! So I took advantage and got up, made some coffee and ate a few bites of something before I started my run. I want to say I started around 5:45 but I'm not sure. Either way, I was done and upstairs by 6:30 which is not bad at all! It was right on time to start waking the kids up for school.

Style/Workout: 35 minute tempo run (started at 6mph, adding .2 mph every 5 minutes. Last 5 minutes was about 8mph I believe).
Setting/Route: Treadmill
Mileage: 4.3 miles
My thoughts: This run was great. I just loaded some more music on my iPod which was awesome. Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" was quite approriate! Accelerating felt good, but the last 10 minutes was really hard. I had to catch my breath twice and it really made me focus and work hard. I also took a bathroom break at 10 minutes.

Progress: (running mileage this month/year total): 4.3 today/20.41 year-to-date

Today I felt great after starting my day running. I stayed alert during my lectures when usually I'm getting drowsy. I just felt "on" today after such a great start.

It makes me feel good that so far I am keeping my life in balance. It's a challenge! Without my husband I don't think it would be possible either. He really lends a hand and gets involved wherever is needed.

Ok off to pick up one son from swim team and bring the other his basketball shoes for his practice! Then AWANA tonight (and study time for me)!