De-stressing The Weekend.

I signed up for the Irish Rover 5k a couple months ago. I wanted to start out the season with an idea of where I am at as far as speed goes. Of course I knew it would be pathetic as I haven't trained for speed at all this winter.

I missed the race last spring and it seems that may be the root for the reason I didn't run any 5ks last year at all. It is almost like you have to get that first one behind you, then the rest fall into place.

On Friday, I spent some time trying to decide my weekend schedule. It seems that the Irish Rover was going to be a pain to schedule in. We had company that was leaving at 11 am, plus I didn't get my run in on Saturday because I was at work. I figured that if I really rushed, I should be able to make it back home in time, but then I would need to schedule in another run in the afternoon to get my mileage where I wanted it for this week.

I was starting to stress about schedule then it dawned on me, weekends are supposed to be a time to leave stress behind. Heaven knows I spend all week stressing about schedules at work, why the hell should I let the weekends be the same.

One of the reasons I started trail running was to get away from the stringent structure of my workweek, to enjoy some easy quiet time in nature. Just to get out there and run....because I wanted to, not because I had to.

So when I woke up Sunday morning I asked myself, do I want to chase around to race a 5k that I know will disappoint me, or do I just want to go for a nice relaxing trail run? The decision to hit the trail completely drained me of stress, I left the house with a big smile as I took a deep breath of air and headed down the driveway.

You know what, I had a great run which started my day off extremely well. It didn't matter that I paid for an entry in the 5k race, it was charity anyway. The difference was I ran the race for charity on my own course..... Though I didn't get a shirt this year, I did wear one of my Irish Rover shirts from a previous year in honor of the race.

I got back from my run at 9:30 am, so plenty of time to spend with my company before they left. The rest of the day seemed perfect because I felt good about my decision and my run.

Run stats:

7.50 (or possibly closer to 8 miles) @ 1:18:59

Pace.....heart rate
10:20....137-152
10:39....146-154
11:18....149-156
11:10....148-159
12:09....140-152
13:31....145-154
9:34....150-159
7:40....160