August 9th, 2010 – 3.69 Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Tonight’s run was really great. The weather was perfect and I decided I would make this an interval run. I sprinted the first and third miles and walked the second and fourth. I’d never done that before and I think next time I’ll do it on the track to get more accurate distance measurements.

Mile one was actually really good!!!! Usually, I don’t like mile one at all. But I was in a zone and determined to push myself as hard as I could without destroying myself. I’d never even tried to break my typical 12-minute mile pace, but I did this time. At times I got down to a 7:59 mile pace (but not for very long). I think giving myself permission to fully recover at the end of mile one gave me the strength to keep running hard when I wanted to stop.

Mile two was strange. I was happy to stop running, but I had to force myself to walk. I started to get a sting in my hip and I just *knew* that if I started running, it would go away. But I was as determined to sprint the third mile, so I knew I had to fully recover over mile two if I was going to do that.

Mile three was great! I was on the homeward stretch and this part of the course is on a very slight decline, so I did a short stretching session at the stop light to relieve the sting in my hip and began my sprint toward home.

I decided to leave Sarah at home because I really wanted to focus on speed and form. It was a terrible shame. I don’t think I ran into a single dog. She would have loved this run.

The end of the run was easy. A nice walk with a brief sprint toward home at the end. The kids had spent the day with their grandmother. She took them to the fair and was on her way to our place to drop them off. I wanted to wait until they got home before I did my run but I knew I needed to get out there. I would just have to see them when I got back.

I was thrilled to pieces to get home and find that they hadn’t made it back yet! They showed up right after I got home. I was so glad to see them, not that they would touch me, dripping with sweat as I was.

After a quick shower, I got a hug and a pic with my BIG boy. Look how beautiful his skin is! I could just kiss him and kiss him and kiss him!