Man oh man, it is cold outside. Thought yoga would be a nice treat to warm up. Instead of getting soaked, Ali had us focusing on postures more than she ever has. Although I didn't feel the push as much as I like to, I really enjoyed working on perfecting what I have built.

Distance: n/a
State of Mind: Loved how much we talked about negativity being a natural part of our lives, something to face not fear

Did a moderate loop around the park with the group tonight, the Wed night runs have definitely developed into a solid group of runners. Afterward, H & I headed to the Y for a little weight routine. Since I was out of practice, I was definitely a little sloppy. Need to find more consistency.

Distance: around 7 miles
State of Mind: Very very happy to have support of a team

Breaking away from my usual patterns, which is outright scary to me, I decided not to immediately sign up for Coach's speed session & instead do more customized, informal speed workouts with whoever will join me. Lucky enough, it seems like there is such a connection at the park that being alone is hard to do.

We ended up doing a 4-mile pace run, following R's plan. I was pretty excited to see where my fitness level was at, until I hit mile 3. Ran a 6:50 mile one, 7:15 mile two, 7:23 mile three & 7:40+ mile four (with hill). My fourth mile wasn't as slow as it seemed, because of the gnarly hill I had to deal with, but mile three was treacherous. I felt out of control, completely broken down & couldn't find any solution to pick up my pace.

Distance: 3 miles of warming up/down + 4 mile pace run
State of Mind: Now I know where I am...

Birthday Weekend

Always, without fail, I become an introverted, depressed mess during my birthday. Not sure why, but it is something that I literally need to roll with as I haven't found a way around it. Fear is definitely part of it, it is almost like my time every year to be viewed from the inside out versus the way I usually portray myself.

Started off Saturday with what was supposed to be an easy 12 miler. But by the end, I was killing myself. Part of the problem is that I intentionally slowed down, away from the group which left me running much of the run on my own. But the problem was that the group was in eyesight, so although my body was fine with the pace my mind wanted ever so badly to catch up with everyone. By the end, I felt like I gave it my everything to stay with the group, only to get left time after time once we entered a hill or a straightaway where people could pick up speed.

Distance: 13+ miles

On Sunday, I started my birthday celebration with a two-hour inversion class at Laughing Lotus. Since one of my major fears in yoga is letting go & allowing myself to go upside down, I thought this would be perfect. The class was definitely fun, but it didn't really allow me to face my fears since we were constantly working with groups which distracted my attention away from dealing with any real issue.

On Monday, my true birthday, I decided to skip out on running & take another two-hour yoga practice, this time with the owner of the studio. The practice was unbelievable. Seriously the most challenging thing I have done in a long time, by far the most challenging yoga practice I have ever taken. I was soaked, exhausted & pushing my body to new limits. It completely drained me, left me in a calm trance with very little control for the rest of the day.

State of Mind: So, all in all, I did learn something this weekend but mainly I learned that I still have so much growth to do. So much to learn. So much to give. Which, all in all, is not a bad thing to focus on during this temporary instability.

Great yoga practice tonight. With my day full of efforts to make me conform, I really needed a place that allowed me to be myself. And over & over again, A finished the practice by saying "if you take away what makes you less than, all you are left with is love, compassion & forgiveness.

Distance: n/a
State of Mind: Clarity

It's take a strong person to head out in weather like this, so dark, rainy & cold. It really shows a commitment to running that goes above & beyond the superficial benefits of it.

Did a loop around the park with the group tonight. I wanted something easy, but the group really picked it up. So much so, I couldn't even see them on the back stretch of the park. I ran most of the way with M, which is always great to take in some of her experiences, thoughts, perceptions.

Distance: 5.3 miles
State of Mind: Glad to be able to put in so many miles with such great people

The nice thing about the park is you never know who you will run into. My original plan was to do an easy loop of the park, but I am never one to run alone if I can find company to join me. After starting out on my own, I ran into Coach, who was running in his typical serious way. We ended up running almost the entire loop together, chatting in our new cold way. I am not sure which version of Coach I prefer, but I guess it's a little out of my control.

Near the ice skating rink, we ran into G who ran with us all the way to GAP to meet up with the a few other guys who were planning to do hill repeats. We broke off into pairs & pushed out way up the hill several times, mocking each other to spur on more competition.

My right foot/plantar fascistic bothered me all run. But after I stretched it at the end, it instantly felt better. Hope me increasing my miles & intensifying my workouts won't bring more to my body than it can handle.

Distance: 6 miles + 5 hill repeats
State of Mind: Corre loves company