dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Things have been hard lately from a running perspective.  I have had trouble motivating myself to run because I feel to an extent like I should step away from the competitive side of running, and maybe just run for general fitness/health reasons.  The problem is that the competitive side of running was a big part of my motivation to run, and I have a harder time motivating myself to get out the door when I don't really have a goal attached to the effort.

I am still thinking things over, so I may still decide to pick up the mileage and train more competitively again, but right now it is hard given the health problems that I had, and knowing that those problems are still not completely resolved.

7 miles today.  I didn't have a watch so no time for the run.  I ran most of the 7 miles on the track at UNLV, and other people were running too.  This motivated me to run a little faster than normal (if I had a watch I probably wouldn't have run as fast) and when the running group started a timed mile shortly after I passed them I sped up so that none of them would pass me.  After a couple laps when I realized that I was pulling away from the group I sped up a fair amount to see if I could lap the leaders.  I never really got close to lapping the people at the front, but I put about 200m on them over the last 2 laps.

I ran 5.5 miles today, averaging about 7:00 pace for the run because I was on the treadmill at school, and I just wanted to get the run over with (treadmills are boring).

5 miles