My alarm went off at 5:45 a.m. this morning.
It was still pitch black outside, and my room was freezing cold.
My first instinct? Turn off the alarm. Screw running.
And then I remembered: I have friends to meet!
So I dragged myself out of bed, laced up my shoes, ate a piece of toast with almond butter and jam, and headed out into the cold dark morning to meet the girls.
I LOVE having running buddies. Not only do I run faster and longer (and am more apt to power through hills) when I run with others, I also have more fun! 🙂
It was CHILLY this morning (the photo above is from August), but once the 4 of us warmed up it felt great. I actually would way rather run in cold weather than hot weather, but getting out the door is the hardest part, especially when it’s dark out still. How about you? Are you a warm or cold weather runner?
We had a wonderful run full of chatting and watching the sun rise — 4.45 miles in 40:11 minutes, for an average pace of 9:01. I’m so glad I finally have my new running shoes — it’s making such a difference!
Here’s Mr. Garmin with our run recap (the best training buddy of all!):
Our recent running route has us going up a massively long gradual hill — while it doesn’t feel awesome at the time it sure is great training! Training for what, you ask, since I don’t have any races coming up? Well, training for life, of course! 🙂 You can’t just give up when things get hard and running up hills is a great way to prove to yourself that you can power through if you put your mind to it!
Splits:
- Mile 1: 9:04 (warming up our cold muscles!)
- Mile 2: 9:19 (this ENTIRE mile is the huge hill. It goes on forever!)
- Mile 3: 9:18 (the hill continues and ends with a super steep part!)
- Mile 4: 8:38 (sweet downhill)
- 0.45 nubbin: 8:35 pace (yay! more downhill and feeling good)
A great run with great friends. Part of the run takes us down Franklin Street past campus — it’s so quiet that early in the morning!
Today is my day off, so I’m off to get some schoolwork done and then I’m headed to Raleigh later today to shadow an RD for one of my classes! I’m actually really excited — I think it will be so interesting to sit in on a “real life” diet counseling session. The RD I’m going to observe does a lot of sports nutrition, so it should be cool! I’ll let you guys know how it goes 🙂
Ta-ta for now, friends! Do you work out or run with a friend, or do you prefer to exercise solo?
