awesome 11!!!!

I ran 11 miles this morning! EARLY this morning! I left while it was still dark. There I went with an iPod loaded with all new songs and a fuel belt loaded with gels, water, my cell phone and drivers license. Oh and I had my mace!

This run was great! Several things made it great.

1. I was hydrated. I am really good about this because I drink water all the time.

2. My diet this week has been on target. The past two days I have made sure to get carbs in and it really helped. At Bible Study last night, you could tell who the three were in the group who had a long run this morning. Instead of eating Chili like everyone else, we chowed down on our whole grain pasta and chicken. Chili before a long run, not smart.

3. New songs! CCR's Run Through the Jungle and Ramble Tamble was great! (I will post some songs on a different post in case any of you need new tunes. I was extremely angry with my iPod all of last week because the songs were officially OLD!

4. 2 gels. One without caffeine at 30 minutes, one with 1xcaffeine at 60 minutes. These things really help me! I've been doing both with caffeine but Heidi gave me a good tip on that. One with, one without.

5. My water refill station (aka-Monica's house)

6. My Mind was healthy!

7. My Garmin helped me make sure I was running at the pace I needed to run. LOVE THAT GARMIN!

8. Prayer

9. Heidi's pep talk yesterday

10. discipline-KEEP GOING!

I will never quit saying this. Everyone is going to get sick of hearing me say it. RUNNING HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! I LOVE THIS SPORT! LOVE IT! Can you tell I am still on the Runner's High?

Okay and here is something I have figured out I am good at it. This is my forte. So excited to have found an area of running I excel in. It's called "Negative Split". I stayed at a certain pace for six miles. And by the way, the first six miles of a long run is hard for me. When that GARMIN beeped on mile 6, I significantly picked up my pace and my mood significantly changed. Running faster during the second half has trained my mind to NOT start off fast and it magically keeps me where I need to be during the second half. I am amazed by this process. It works! Mile 11 for me was the fastest mile of the whole run. And it was FAST! This is called "Negative Split".

There you have it! My journal entry of an 11 miler! I'm so proud of myself! SO PROUD! My hips are sore and I am tired but feeling good!

Thank you Lord for the gift of running.

Awesome running,

Amanda