Hello, Mocha, I've missed you

I had the most amazingly hard run today, but it was wonderful.  For some reason Monday after my speed workout - six miles with three measly 2-minute intervals at 8:00 pace thrown in the middle - and my crunches and push ups, I stood up to a sharp sciatic pain in the butt.

I was not pleased.

This pain persisted through Monday and into Tuesday.  Hot yoga Tuesday morning seemed to alleviate the sharper pain, but I was left with a dull pain in the rear.  Why this happened?  Who knows.  *Yawn*  I am starting to get bored by tired of my daily aches and pains.  This one comes at a bad time because of the relay I am running this weekend, but what are you going to do?  I'll just take things one day at a time.

In any case, I went into today's group run feeling a little dubious about being able to hang with anyone.  I wanted to avoid hills, speed, and trails.  What I got were 1) hills, 2) speed, and 3) trails.  Am I that much of a sheep that I follow a group when they are doing things I said I would avoid?  No, of course not.  But the fact is that I wanted to run with the group, and I am stubborn enough to stick out the route even if it isn't what I would have chosen for myself this day.  Also, I forgot my watch, so if I wanted an accurate read of my efforts, I needed to hang with someone who had one.  lol

Anyway, sticking it out gave me a far better reward than if I had just dropped off and done my own thing.  I was reminded once again, that while I am not the strongest runner out there, I am STRONGER than I thought.  And, I'll take that.  When feeling down about feeling less than stellar, a strong run is just the push I need to tip me over into happy land again.

So, 4.5 miles done.  It was a mix of road and trails, and when we took our first pause, I found out we were going 8:15 pace.  Say what?!?  Needless to say, I tried to slow down a bit after that.  When one of my friends had to take a phone call regarding a race she is directing this weekend, I was happy for the extended walk break.  All in all, it was a great run.  I discovered a plethora of hidden trails that I hadn't even known existed, and I had fun talking with my friends.

Sweaty post-run self-portrait!

So, run aside, why was this particular Wednesday so special?  Well, the chocolate challenge in done, so I got to order one of my beloved mochas again!  Hurray!  Woohoo!  Yippee-skippy!  I was happy.

MOCHA!

Happy running!