Not Every Successful Run Means a PR

Ever since I can remember, I have measured my success in running by the time. What time was a success varied over the years but largely time mattered!  That does not mean that other things did not matter but first and foremost, as much as I hate to admit, it was about the time. I was ecstatic when I set a PR or increased my speed and disappointed in myself or sad when I did not, especially when it did not even come close.  And I am not saying this has totally changed and I have done a complete 180 where I will never care about time because to be honest as a runner, I care.  However, this weekend, my 8 miles taught me this:

I don't have to have a great time to have a successful run, in fact I can have an awful, down right dreadful run and it can still be a success, because hey I am out here, I am doing it and that in itself is an achievement.

As some of you may recall, I am having some shoe problems. In fact shoes and I are not in anyway getting a long lately. Which pretty much resulted in my tearful phone calls to my husband and my father on Saturday morning when I tried to run 8 miles and ran 3 minutes (yes minutes not miles!) instead due to massive foot pain, which I figured was shoe related (this being my 6th pair, in uhhh I week). I was pretty distraught, clearly, about the lack of shoes to run it. So the hubby and I high tailed it over to the Running Company and got some good advice.

And the results... Uh apparently I have been in the wrong shoe for ummm 3 years (according to them anyway, PT does not think so as much).  They explained that while I do pronate, the Brooks that I love so dearly are too much to correct my pronation and could actually be causing my IT Band pain, figures.   And the foot pain, not shoe pain, but some of my planta facitis that I have been dealing with (yes I am a mess, do you still love me?).  So they put some orthodics in my shoes and WOW it made a world of difference! I was soo excited to say the least, this might help the foot pain and the knee pain  YAY :)

So out we went on Sunday morning to give these babies a test drive, Aaron in blades and me in the shoes. Well, by mile 2 I was drenched and breathing hard at a pace that usually is a jog for me.  I could try to explain why, but why bother, it just is what it is.  It was hard to continue, plus to make matters worse I had to keep stopping, to stretch the IT Band, to adjust the compression socks, to drink water, to, to, to. etc. At one point, I got so annoyed I tore off my garmin and threw it to Aaron saying just take this thing away. My encouraging knight in shining armor (ok I know sappy, but true) encouraged me through and kept reframing my negative thoughts and sacrificing his better workout on Rollerblades to help me get through the moment, and you know what I did! I lived..barely lol. But despite all of this, the run was a HUGE success!! Guess what? NO FOOT PAIN = SCORE, finally phew, I think, I hope, I pray we may have finally found a winner with these shoes!

In real life, meaning non-running world, apparently my car is no longer being fixed. Insurance has decided not to fix it and just give us money to buy a new one, essentially.  In that regard, my brother-in-law taught me how to drive a stick, just to see if I would like it. Well, I did it...sort of..  We went to a parking lot to practice and I was doing great. Until this happened:

Brother in law: ok now lets pretend you are at traffic light, it is red. So this is what we do. Ok we are about to go green, you better go or people will be mad.
Me: Stall the car

Ok round 2,
Brother in law: take a breathe, lets try again, repeat scenario
Me: Stall the Car

Ok forget the traffic light just drive agian like normal
Me: Drive the car like normal.

Brother in law: Ok one more time, traffic light scenario
Me: Stall the Car in between fits of laughter
Repeat another two times ;)

Guess I am not made to perform well under pressure. Who knows how I managed to pass 2 bar exams.  Anyway I know, not a lot of pictures but I am working on it - how do you like the change in blog design, it is a work in progress please be kind to me while I work on the redesign! Also I need to get up a Dance Party Video at the request of many :)