Ramping up the Confidence

Ask me how glad I am to have my last pre-race 'long run' under my belt.

Go on.

Ask.

GLAD!  And not for the reason you might think - the typical, "ugh, enough running already".  I've come up so short on training for this race, that I couldn't possibly complain about a 10 miler.

No, I'm glad because it was so much easier than the shamble-town 8 mile run I stumbled my way through last week.  Ugh.  What a shambles.  I'm not going to lie.  It scared me to feel so tired so early in a run, and so worn down and 'melty' as we progressed.  It sucked.

Not Saturday's run, though.  Saturday's run was a delight.  We ran along Toronto's surprisingly clean waterfront, enjoyed the lake and the skyline sparkling to life as dusk turned to night.  It was a perfect late summer night, and seemed to be designed for running.

I am also assuming that being home has been helping.  I'm feeling a little better every day, and coughing less.  I had a difficult time with my health while on my most recent ship contract.  It's been hard to pin down why.  I have never been so exhausted in my life.  Could have been lack of sleep coupled with a lot of hard physical training (we were hitting P90X pretty hard along with our run training) mixed in with poor air quality and sprinkled liberally with hyperthyroidism.  Who can say?

Well, my doctor, I suppose.  I'm getting bloodwork done tomorrow to follow up on my wonky thyroid results from last month.  She also added a few extra tests into the mix since I'm "a runner".  Huh.  I guess I am!

During our run on Saturday, we tried out the vegan gel shot that we picked up from Whole Foods.  It was different.  A little grainy, but I can only assume that was the result of raspberry seeds and whatnot.  (We tried the raspberry flavor this time out).

Source: http://vegasport.com/

Once I got past the texture (I chalk it up to an unfair comparison to more 'gelly' type gels), it was quite enjoyable.  My husband had the great idea to go halvsies with it and the Chocolate Cif Shot.  Uh, YEP!

My tummy got a little funky around mile 8, however.  That doesn't usually happen, so I'm not sure if I'll stick with these.

Now all that's left before the Disneyland Half on September 2nd are a few conditioning runs and a 6 mile run this coming weekend.

In the interest of building confidence (my theme from now till the Half), I'm going to be running the Toronto Women's 10K this Saturday!  I'll be going by myself, running by myself.  It's a 'me' race.  I'm hoping to complete the race in under 1:20, I'd be thrilled with 1:15.  We'll see.  I'm not fast, but it's only 6 miles.  (Only!)

It's hosted by Toronto Women's Runs.  They've got several runs a year, so if you're in the Toronto area,  or want to travel there to run, check them out.

How far would you travel for a race?