4K Night Run

Today's run perfectly illustrated how some runs can simply be better than others for me. I once again "cheated" and chose a different run than what I was supposed to from my 10K training plan. However, it evened out because I was supposed to do a 25-minute run and I went back to week 1 and did the 4K run. The main reason for this change was because I wanted to run with Coach Bennett. I am likely biased because I've used Coach Bennett for so many more runs than any other coach, but I just prefer him. Plus, it worked out that I got to choose a distance run instead.

This run was a "Starting Lines" run rather than a "Finish Lines," so Coach would say a line and you'd fill in the first word. It was solid, I was entertained. The first two and really the only ones I remember were "____ is the reason I'm doing this run" and "___ is how I want to feel after this run." My answers were "discipline" and "accomplished." It was easy to think about and kept my mind occupied throughout. Much more relatable for me than the "Passion Run."

Compared to the 20-minute recovery run I did on Friday; today's run was immaculate. This is almost 100% because of the fact that I ran at 8:30pm instead of 2:00pm. The sun was setting, the sky was pretty, and there was almost a breeze. I felt good from the start, which was surprising given that I was doing this run 30 minutes later than intended because I ate huge dinner and hadn't felt great after. Somehow, this run just went well. My mamma came out with me too which was nice. We did our usual loop but in the opposite direction which does make the run feel less monotonous. I did check my watch at the mile markers because I knew it wouldn't sike me out today. When I saw that my first mile was at a 10:19 pace, I was pleased because I knew I had been needing to start my runs a little slower. This worked out well for me because I naturally picked it up and ended up running the second mile at a 9:33 pace. The NRC app doesn't have as great of a GPS as the Garmin, so I ended up running 2.55 miles instead of 2.48. I ran that last half a mile at an 8:53 pace. I don't really know how that happened, but I think it may be because Coach came on at 200M to go and I decided to pick it up a bit. We ended the run a little further away from our house than expected, but that was actually nice this time because it was great weather for a quick stroll home.

This was one of those runs that made me actually like running. I felt good the whole time, enjoyed the content from Coach, and honestly was so focused that I wasn't really paying attention to my playlist.

I don't have a lot of other thoughts from the run. I do LOVE a night run though because then I know I just get to shower and lay around for the night. I'm writing this blog then getting in bed :)