Running Buddies FTW!

I've been in a wee bit of a running funk since Fargo.  I don't feel injured persay, but I also don't feel 100%.  Typically my motivation to get out there and get my miles in is the thought of a shiny new PR on the horizon.  Since I've been taking it somewhat easy with my runs, I haven't really had much motivation.  Blah.  Bahhumbug.  Woe is me. Etc. Etc. 

Enter:  The running buddy!

Monday night while sitting at Kyle's softball game pretending the skies would open up and rain out the evening's games I ran in to a girl from college.  She is a crazy good runner.  As in, missed qualifying for the Olympics in the steeplechase by 8 seconds good.  She mentioned that she was looking to get back to running regularly and wanted to tag along on some runs.  After reminding her repeatedly of my "easy" pace she still wanted to come.

Wednesday night we met up for an easy paced 4 miles.  She brought her dog and talked my ear off the whole time (because clearly our pace was akin to walking for her, ha!).  The run flew by.  It was awesome.  Afterwards we sat and stretched and talked about my running and racing goals coming up.  We were having such a good time, that we went for a long walk after the run to keep chatting.  She wants to help me out on my speedier days and some other runs to help her get her mileage back up.  Win WIN win. :)

We did 4 miles in 38:26 for a pace of 9:37.

Earlier in the week, I had a random friend from way back when send me a Facebook message asking me to accompany her on her 9 mile long run to help her get back in to some long run mileage territory.  Well it just so happened that my long run was 9 miles too, so perfect!  It was nice to have some company on a long run.  While our pace wasn't ideal for running that long together, it was fun to be someone's extra motivation to keep going.  Plus she's easily the sweetest gal ever, so it was fun to chat during our walk breaks.

We did 9 miles in 1:42:00 for a pace of 11:20.

Friday I was antsy to get a workout in but had a rest day on the schedule, so I wrangled Aaron in to hitting the pavement on our roadbikes.  More buddy workout fun!  My Garmin was being seriously wonky, but we ended up knocking out 15 miles for the day.

Saturday morning came and it was "third time's the charm!" for our local running store's running group.  It was nice meeting up with some old running friends, as well as meeting some new running friends.  It was insanely hot and humid when we were out there though, uff.  So glad it was just a 4 mile recovery run, or I would've been toast.  Ok, I was toast.  Even worst toast then I suppose.  But I got to run with Angie and talk about the Lennox 10k and our plans for the Sioux Falls full (her) and half (me).

We did 4 miles in about 40 minutes.  With my warm up and cool down run I was at 5.45 for the day.

Two solid thumbs ups to buddy workouts.  It's so much harder to ditch out on a workout when you have someone else counting on you!