Watch out for the HALTs!

This morning, I woke up with a case of the HALTs - that's Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.  And I was definitely all four when I got up - not a great way to start the day!  I fixed the Hungry quick by having a waffle - a banana just hasn't been cutting it for me right before my run, so I thought a quick dose of carbs might be more helpful (and yes, Coach J, I'm eating lots and lots of protein otherwise! Lots).  The Angry was brought on by an unnecessarily rude email I received, which I was able to respond to later and forget about.  I've heard people recommend running when you're mad and I hoped my run would help get out some of my frustration.  I knew nothing would fix the Tired except sleep, and I'm not likely to get a lot of that until I get home this weekend because this afternoon, I drove four hours to National Harbor, Maryland for the Legal Marketing Association's Annual Conference, a whirlwind of networking events, conference sessions, and trips to the exhibit hall.  Normally, I feel like I float through the conference a bit, bumping into people like icebergs in the night, which definitely doesn't help the Lonely.  But fortunately, my twitter networking helped me to get a core group of people to meet with here, so a 5pm "tweetup" fixed today's Lonely!  

So on to my run - I think if I had been less tired when I woke up, running mad would have made for a great run.  I do have to say that the run was still good today - not as awesome as Monday's run, but still better than it has been lately!  It was murder-mystery misty out this morning, with a strong sea smell, which I just love.  Although 41 degrees is not warm, I seem to heat up so quickly once I start running, so the fleece I wore over my tee shirt turned out to be too much for me this morning. It was a bit breezy, as usual, so that definitely helped me for a change.  And for the most part, my body felt great.  Though, I'm getting a better understanding of what Jannah (super inspirational awesome runner/blogger/triathlete - read her blog!!) meant when she said a few weeks' ago that her legs tired out before her body did - I really felt that way this morning.  The rest of me was going strong, but my legs were ready to quit after the first ten minutes!

But I was excited to figure out yesterday that I'm definitely running about a ten-minute mile - my fastest time EVER!!  I finally checked the mileage with my car, and I'm hitting the couch potato goal of 2 & 3/4 miles for this week, in 28 minutes.  I might even be exceeding it just a little.  So that gives me a lot of confidence that I'll be able to run 3.1 miles in May successfully and that I've got plenty of time to settle into running 3 miles regularly.  

Today, I did have to take a minute walking break about midway through because I was getting a funny pain in my chest, which did go away quickly.  Although I definitely prefer to run first thing in the morning, I think sometimes my body would prefer if I ran about midday after it has had time to warm up to the day a bit.  I might have to play around with that and see.  In other good news, my foot felt a bit sore, but with no time to ice it after my run as I tried to get a myriad of things accomplished before I left, it now feels fine.  That gives me hope for Friday's run when I will certainly not have ice - I understand there are a number of great running trails around this crazy hotel complex, so I'm excited to check those out first thing Friday morning!  As long as the promised thunderstorms aren't happening - in that case, I'll be checking out the gym.  

In the meantime, I'm sure I'll get quite a workout in just walking around this hotel, which is ENORMOUS.  My feet hurt already, and I've only been here for about five hours!  More networking to come tonight, and even with all the legal marketing talk, I've already been encouraging other people to take up running!