When your body doesn’t fail you

Last night’s run?

A prime example of my body not failing me, even though my mind had other ideas.
(well, that’s  not entirely true – gimme a minute and I’ll explain.)

Let me set the stage first. It’s been ridiculously warm around here lately – as in hitting 70+ the last two days. In March. In Boston. Unreal. These legs have been itching to run, run, RUN in this weather. Hence Monday night’s impromptu rundate with my sis and last night’s planned rundate with the hubs – to the tune of 6.5 miles, around one of our favorite running routes in our neighborhood.

We set out a little after 5pm. It was still in the 60s. Peepers were chirping. A nice warm breeze was blowing. I had my wunder unders on from Lululemon (my latest purchase and newest Lulu infatuation!) and a t-shirt and was ready to rock our run.

However.

My body was tired. I knew it as soon as we got into the first mile. But I told myself to chug on. I knew I had it in me to get through all 6.5, or at least that’s what I told myself at such an early juncture in our run.

However.

We hit mile 2 and I was still feeling really beat up. Tired. But elated that the weather was so gorgeous and that I was running with my favorite running companion ever. So I kept it up.

However.

The miles kept coming and my body was getting more and more tired. And now I’m getting mad at myself. Like what the heck is wrong with me – this is PRIME running weather, I should be rockin’ a mean runner’s high right now.

And then it hit me. Well – two things, really. First – I realized how fast our legs were moving. No wonder…we’re running like maniacs out here right now (no idea on exact pace since we run garmin-less, but my body tells me it was holy-sh*t-fast). And second – my rest day is near. As in – it’s today. Thank God for that. Clearly that’s why I was struggling so much last night. I realize this now, but didn’t fully understand it in that moment last night.

Anyway, we finished out our run, I got past the “struggle” feeling and started to feel better as we neared closer to home. We hoofed it up the last hill, around the corner and to the end of our route. I have never been so happy to see the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. I’ll tell ya that.

This is how I looked right after the run – it’s not pretty, oy. Check out that beet red face, hot stuff, lemme tell ya.
(and wow is that a blurry iPhone pic, sorry about that!)

Well – things sorta deteriorated from there. After dinner, I got super duper nauseous. Ick. Took a shower. Sorta felt better. Ended up on the couch the rest of the night. A sign that I pushed it really hard *and* probably a sign that my body was just a wee bit tired, eh? Thank GOD today is my rest day — I am fully and utterly embracing it. Why yes, yes I am. 🙂

So – while I ended up feeling less-than-stellar at the end of the night last night, I still contend that my body did not let me down in the moment I needed it most: during the final few miles of that run, when my mind kept telling me to stop (or “please don’t puke”),  my body kept going. Gives me confidence that this mind over matter thing is for real *and* that if you trust your body, 9 times out of 10, it won’t let you down. <—can I get an “amen?!”