Small celebrations

This Sunday, I will have run further in a week than I ever have before: 50 miles in 6 days.  I made this connection this morning after a brutal 11 mile workout, where 9 miles were at an 8:40 pace and the other 2 were tired and still too far from home to walk.  So to celebrate this new accomplishment, I wanted to make a list of the things that have changed for me since I've started increasing my weekly totals, and average paces.

• I take the long routes in my car just so that I can warm up my butt a little longer with my seat heater.  

• I wear a bathing suit in the bathtub during ice baths so that I can maintain some sense of pride when my boys barge in laughing sadistically at my shivering body.  

• Blow drying my hair takes 3 times longer.  This is partially because my body is tired and holding a hair dryer above my shoulders sucks.  It is also because I aim the air stream at my beat up legs for half the time.

• Ice baths work better when I roll my legs out with a foam roller first.  My post run ritual is now quite long.

• I run better the next day if I roll my legs out again before bed.  My night time ritual is now quite long.

• Chocolate milk tastes better than advertised.  To think I used to hate that delectable liquid...

• My body has a harder time processing foods the more I run.  So fresh foods, small meals, and lots of fruits, veggies, yogurt, and trail mix have become my daily norm.

• I naturally wake up before 5:30 every morning ready to run.  

• I've made friends with the baristas at the Starbucks near my house, not because I purchase coffee in the morning but because on those crazy cold mornings where I can't feel my fingers, they yell out the drive through window at me that I am crazy and they love my dedication, do I need to come and pee where it is warm?  

• I've stopped peeking at the weeks ahead on my training calendar.  It scares the hell out of me, so I am trying to take it one day at a time.

I am really surprised by how far I've come.  I never used to be able to run 2 consecutive days and now I run 6 days in a row!  I am running farther, faster, and more miles in a week than I ever thought my body could handle.  After each run, I am proud of myself.  It is like daily goals that I alone get to conquer, where my body shows me how strong it truly is and it feels unbelievably good.


How do you celebrate milestones, whether large or small?  

What things have changed for you during your training?

What foods to you enjoy more now than before you began running?

~Roadburner

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