Changes in Attitude

Attitude, a word often used in our household to mean something that needs to be corrected.  I resembled that remark this morning when it came to running intervals.

Our group of women, who have worked very hard this summer to get moving, started the schedule to train for the half marathon.  We agreed that we need to utilize intervals in order to stay injury free and make it out alive without being picked up by the Disney running police for being too slow.  I've been very fortunate during my weekday runs to be able to run 3 miles regularly and the schedule called for 3 miles today. 

I figured, who needs intervals, I've got this.  The other ladies were running intervals, yet I still was acting like the pouty child who didn't want to do it.  Then it hit me....I didn't enjoy them last weekend because they were new, they caused my pace to get out of whack (which is totally a pride thing that I need to let go of), but how am I ever going to "like" them if I don't practice. 

This reminded me of habits we all have.  I forget the number of times you are suppose to do something before it officially becomes a habit, but it doesn't just magically appear.  Getting up early to run and make sure I've set enough time aside to spend in the Word didn't happen overnight.  This took several mornings of making myself roll out of bed to go do something new (running....or attempting to in the beginning) and making sure I focused my time once I got back to the house to have that peaceful time I need in order to get my day off on the right foot. 

All that to say, I did intervals this morning and was pleasantly surprised.  I stayed within a decent pace, helped that I didn't leisurely stroll during the walking part as well, I pushed myself a bit harder during the 4 minutes of running in between the 1 minute of walking.  Once I sat down to analyze my laps and look at the intervals, I was amazed at the heart rate recovery that takes place in those quick 60 seconds.  I'm beginning to see great value, especially once we up our mileage, in these lovely little things called intervals. 

Now....to make sure I program the Garmin next time I start will definately make the running part easier.  The Garmin has a more pleasant way of telling when it's time to change vs. the voices that were in my ears during C25k, the one guy was a bit intimidating. 

This week will be a bit weird, I'll be traveling over the end of the week and the weekend, which means..... treadmill!  I'll be very honest, walking on a treadmill doesn't bother me, but I don't enjoy it as much as being outside.  Running on a treadmill actually scares me a bit the whole moving belt thing that I have to stay (or should I say attempt to stay) at the same pace.....ack!