Make the Time to Run

People always ask me, "When do you have time to run?"  As a marathon runner, I set goals and create a training schedule.  By doing this, it keeps me accountable to stick with it.  Yes, I know that it's hard at times because I can't control what the weather will be like or what life throws at me day to day.  I do know that as long as I'm healthy and able to run, there are no excuses.  You need to be disciplined and focus on your goal.  I have never ran an ultra marathon and this training schedule I created is no joke.  I took the training schedule posted on the Fort Worth Ultra Marathon website and tweaked it to make it my own.  I wasn't able to run on Thursday due to work, but was able to still go teach cycle class.  I still was able to get my cardio in so, I really didn't sweat the 5 miles I was supposed to do.  If I don't get my scheduled miles during the week, I try to make it up during the other days of the week.  I do want to make sure that I keep Fridays as me rest day and that I don't miss my long distance run on Saturdays.  Last Saturday it rained all day, so I ran my scheduled 14 miles on Sunday instead.  I taught cycle that morning, so I had to split up my mileage.  I ran 5 miles on the treadmill and ran 10 miles after cycle class.

Today I was scheduled to run 17 miles.  I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed up nose.  I really wanted to sleep in, but didn't want to miss my run.  The temperature outside was in the 40s and it was windy.  I forgot to charge my bluetooth headphones and decided to just play the music out loud. I didn't worry about my pace and it was a tough run.  My nose kept dripping and that wind chill was cold!  There was hardly anyone out at Trinity Trails.  I decided to to run around TCU and do some hill work cause I knew I would see more people out that way.  On my turn around back, there seemed to be more people on the trail because it was later, I guess.  It was a slower pace than normal, but I didn't care, I just wanted to finish.  You sometimes have good runs, and sometimes you have bad runs.  Today was one where I felt under the weather, but got it done.