Thank You For Being A Friend

This past week we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday and as I sat at her kitchen table watching her celebrate with friends, some old, some new, I realized that she is part of a wonderful group of ladies that make up an awesome support network. I could just picture myself and the girls in the very same situation one day in the future. 

I am so thankful that I too, have such a supportive group of people to lean on. When I'm struggling to get through the temptations that inevitably come my way and threaten to derail my training and healthy eating goals, I know I can always count on them for encouragement and to help me make better choices. 

Sort of.

Well, at least I can depend on them to make sure we get our long runs in. This past week we had 12 km on our schedule and we struggled to find a time on the weekend when we could all run together. Between work schedules and kid activities it looked like we wouldn't all be able to run together. But we were determined to find a solution and finally decided to do our long run on Thursday night instead of on the weekend. We did our hills on Tuesday to be sure we didn't miss out on those and Thursday night all five of us met for the group run, raring to go. Maybe it was the route, or maybe it was the cool temperatures, but this run didn't seem as long or as hard as our 11 km two weeks ago. Most likely it's because we didn't have to run up the hill on Paradise Road this time. 

Maybe I should have picked a route with more hills because as we ran, Molly and Paula (who obviously forgot how horrible Paradise Hill was) started making plans to run from Cape Spear to Water Street. I'm sure this is their way of trying to convince me to run the Cape to Cabot next year. I'm thinking NO.

Sugar was working on Thursday so I knew there wouldn't be any surprise water stops on our route. I decided to leave my vehicle at the half way point so we could refuel without having to carry all our snacks. On the advice of Kiley Dominator, I flattened my treats this time because apparently they make you run better if you eat them that way. They are definitely easier to eat and I may have had more than I should have at the pit stop. I'm not sure the others even got a taste. 

According to my FitBit, I ran 12.15 km in 1:37:38. Since I forgot to pause my app, this includes the time it took to stop and visit the bathrooms at Coffee Matters as well as the time it took for me to eat all the aforementioned cookies. Overall, I think that's a pretty decent time. For me at least. And other than tired legs the next day, there were no ill effects from the run. That alone deserves a medal.

This coming week we'll actually get a medal for our long run because we're doing the USR on Sunday. I've never done this race before but I'm glad to be a part of it this year since its focus is on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Beaumont Hamel. I think there's still time to register for one of the five races (anywhere from 1 km to 21 km) so head on over to the ANE website and check it out.

Happy Training!