Just 10 More Minutes

Is a phrase that has been ringing in my ears since last week’s business trip.  I found myself saying that a lot as I was pushing myself to get through some workouts.  In fact, here’s a version of what that workout looks like on paper.

Not only have I been hearing it it my head but I’ve been hearing it from my kiddos as well.  The only problem is they really don’t know what it means.  All they know is that if I say “Ok” then they get to play outside longer.  The truth is that I’ve been saying “ok” a lot lately because being outside with them is one of my favorite things ever.  It doesn’t even matter what we do, we’re all together.  Tonight, MiniE jumped on the trampoline for almost 10 minutes nonstop why E and I played baseball and S grilled our dinner.  It is my idea of the perfect Sunday Evening.

I also seemed to use that as my mantra during this weekend’s St. Pat’s Day Run on Saturday.  I’ve been running some but my heart hasn’t been into it but this run has become a tradition for me ever since S and I started dating so I knew I had to go for it.  It’s a five mile loop around the city and the best part is I get to pass S as he cheers me on.  I was approaching this race as a casual run with thousands of my best irish and irish wanna-be friends but something ignited in me when I saw the starting line. 

I can honestly say I haven’t “Raced” since last July when I PR’d the 5K at RnRChicago (get $15 off with code: MomsLRB) and I knew I wasn’t close to hitting those times but I was curious what I would be capable of having not trained for speed much.  It took me nearly a mile to decide to speed it up.  My first mile at 9:00 was a lot of bobbing and weaving as most larger races are coupled with a few pretty gradual and never-ending hills.  The second mile took us down past S and that was enough of a push to get me to speed up a little more, second mile was 8:39 and I felt like I had a LOT more room to run.  The third mile meant more gradual and rolling hills and my time showed it at 8:41.  Mile 4 was just fun and really felt strong but again, I felt like I had more but didn’t give it..8:34.  The last mile was fine, nothing stellar but with a finish time of 44:25, I was happy with the race but realize now, looking back, I had and should’ve given it more effort.

Oh well, I’m not going to let it get me down.  More so, I’m ready to try it again.  Why is racing so addicting?!

The rest of the day was spent with family and friends as we celebrated St. Pat’s Day.  It was beautiful weather and the kids loved it (and so did we).

I’m traveling again this week but this time it’s just 48 hours, if that, and workouts are going to be few and far between so I’ll be getting my butt out of bed to make sure I get it in before the day even has a chance to get away from me.

How was your weekend?  Did you race?