The foot in the door technique

Chris and I woke up at 8:30 this morning (Petru slept 'till 9, by the way - don't envy me, though, he went to bed at 10pm). The plan was for me to get a ride from the boys to Mile 6 of the Boston course. When I looked outside and saw the snow coming strong, and later learned that snow will become rain in a couple of hours, I decided to run close to home. I am not the most flexible person, and it was a bit tough for me to change my mindset, or maybe I am just bored with my long running route.

I made it out around 9:45. Legs felt heavy and my mind was not into the run. I found a more entertaining podcast, and plugged along. The goal for this run was again to be consistent, and also to keep all miles below 8:00 (again ignoring my training plan which told me to do this run @ 8:06). I cheered up when I saw some new runners, parents of Petru's friends jogging on the path. I also realized that it was fun playing the skip the puddles game, and that made the miles go by quickly. I ran loop after loop around Fresh Pond, nodding and saying hi to runners who were doing the same thing, and also trying not to give dirty looks to the dog owners who happen to sit in large groups in the middle of the path, letting their dogs jump on me and other runners (I do like dogs, but don't like some dog owners). I started to feel good around mile 6-7 and my pace got faster. The weather turned out to be gorgeous. It was sunny, and it snowed on and off (mostly off). I dreaded running the Belmont hills, so I gave myself 2 choices: 1) run 20 including the Belmont Hills, or 2) run 22 sans hills.
Yes, I picked choice 2, and all of a sudden I was happy. I had a few small inclines on my route, and the last 4 miles on a slight uphill, so not all fast and flat. My pace @ 15 miles when I picked up the path again was 7:42. Ooo, so close to MP.... So I plugged along, my legs getting a little heavy. Around mile 18 I started thinking about how I did not do hills this week because of the crappy weather, and I really should be doing hills. So what if I add 2 miles of hills on Gray street? I could run them as slow as I wanted, and they would not count toward my average pace (can you tell how attached I get to my average pace???). Decision made. I ran mile 19 at 7:10, for 20 miles @ 7:40, took about 1 min rest, and started the 2 hilly miles. I ran the first mile @ 8:02 and mile 2 @ 8:14. Mile 2 was a killer, with steep hills and little downhill. Good thing I did not have a heart rate monitor because I would have gotten scared by the number. I was breathing so heavy, and was all of a sudden so hungry (usually one gel is enough for me, but not today) that I worried I might not make it home. I took a breather in the middle of this second mile, and then, yay, I did it. The 20 miles were honestly not bad, hard at times, but manageable. But those last 2 hilly miles were very tough and of course I did not let myself slow down too much! But it was worth it because I think running on tired legs will benefit me in Boston. Will see.

So there you have it, the foot in the door technique. I typically use it with my husband, but hey, it worked wonders on me today!