A few steps forward

Friday night was my 1st test... a night out with my girls. It was supposed to be just dinner, then home & in bed by 10:00 so we'd all be fresh & ready to run early Saturday morning. Of course, with us, it never works out how we planned. But I was a good girl. I had one drink at dinner & when we went to a bar afterwards, I only had water. When the girls decided to go to another bar around 11:00, even though we were having a great time, I bid them adeux & went home & was in bed a little before midnight. Not great, but SO much better than it would've been had I stayed out w/ the girls.

I was up at the park a little before 6:00 am to meet up with the TNT'ers at the picnic table. My tummy wasn't feeling that great (note to self: no Mexican food the night before long runs) so I started out reeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyy slow. It was basically a stroll instead of a run. About 10 minutes into it, I almost decided to turn back & go home, but I knew I really needed to run, so I stuck with it. I finally started to perk up once I got to Starbuck's on Memorial so I started to run (which for me is really a slow jog). To my surprise, it felt really good to run. In fact, it felt better to run than it did to walk, so instead of doing my usual intervals of walking 5 mins. & running 1, I did the exact opposite. I couldn't believe that I was able to do that at all. I kept waiting for the time when I just couldn't do it any more, but it never happened. I was amazed!

When I got to my turn-around point, I was feeling pretty damn good. When I was almost back to the park, I heard someone yell "GO ERIN!!!" & turned to see Jon Walk & several other Houston Running Bloggers headed my way. Jon ran beside me & talked to me for a short bit. It was a nice surprise to see the HRB'ers & a great way to end my run. When I got back to the picnic table & looked at my watch, it had taken me 43 minutes to do the 2nd half of my run... 22 minutes faster than the 1st half & it was the exact same distance! Imagine how fast I would've been if I hadn't done that super slow stroll for the 1st 30 minutes. It was very encouraging. I wasn't even that sore afterwards. The only soreness/stiffness I felt was after breakfast because I'd been sitting for about 30-45 minutes. Once I got up & started moving around again, I felt great.

Today was a day of rest but tomorrow will be what the girls have deemed "Ass Day". Every Monday we plan to do hills, squats, & lunges at Spotts Park in an effort to strengthen our legs & hopefully decrease the size & increase the perkiness of our asses. Here's hoping I survive my 1st Ass Day so I can do the Run Wild 5K the next morning. *crosses fingers*