What Makes a Runner a Runner?

Good morning!

I’m sitting outside as I type this and by the looks of it, I really need to get running if I want to beat the rain.. Although, who doesn’t love a good summer run in the rain?

I started my morning off with Tone It Up’s Fourth of July workout.

I love this workout for days where my body’s tired because while it’s definitely a good strength workout, it’s not ridiculously tough. It’s right in the middle. Plus, I like any excuse to use my exercise ball… hehehe

Breakfast came soon after with a clean-out-the-fridge-smoothie (i.e. I’m going away today and needed to use up the fruit). 

1/2 a banana, blueberries, ice, water, and Sunwarrior Vanilla Protein Powder + some water on the side ;).

LATER

After completing some college stuff I headed out for a super sweaty 5 miler. 

Like I said earlier, it looked like it was going to storm any minute so the humidity was INSANE! My body has been super fatigued the last few days for some reason and my hip has started acting up again (I hurt it last year) so while I took it easy I was still so exhausted. My spits looked like this:

Ugh.

The first mile I had so stop at about 4 red lights (the WORST) and I didn’t pause my timer, hence the obscenely slow pace. Mile 4, I stopped and walked for about .2 miles. Walking during a run makes me freak out, for some reason there’s that little voice in my head that yells, “You’re so pathetic! How dare you call yourself a real runner! Real runners push through and aren’t to pathetic to run a simple 5 miler and a disgustingly slow pace!” 

I’ve heard a lot of runners say things similar to this, that they feel like they’re unworthy because they run a little slower than others or because they take a walking break. It’s important to push these emotions out of your head. I’m not saying that it’s easy to do, and I’m certainly not always able to keep that little green monster at bay. But, it’s important to remind yourself of this, “You are runner if you run. Period.” I run because I love it, yes I do it for the calorie burning thing as well but honestly, running is my favorite form of exercise for a reason. It’s my favorite thing in the world, and part of being a runner is knowing your body. If it’s hurting (not the tired kind of hurting, the actual pain kind of hurting) it’s ok to stop and take a little break! You’re not destroying your entire workout by walking for a couple of minutes. I normally never take walking breaks, I can run for over an hour and normally feel perfectly fine. If I’m feeling off one day, if I’m sick, exhausted, or just not feelin’ it one day it’s OK to rest up a little bit. Walking .2 miles of my 5 mile run isn’t going to make me gain a million pounds or make other people deem me as a failure.

I am me. I know myself better than anyone. I know my limits. It’s OK to not always be super hard on myself.

Anyways… back to that humidity…

The best part about running is that I can feel like this (embarrassing myself on the internet is always fun) right when I finish…

and then like THIS ^^ 5 minutes later (pardon my makeup-free sweaty face).

Running’s awesome like that, no matter how horrible you feel during a run, how amazing you feel for the rest of the day.

Oh! And I tried a new running hair style today!

This was supposed to be a 5 strand braid…

Also, I’m obviously an expert at taking hair photos. Vogue should call me right now!

I need to leave to go away in a couple of hours and I haven’t even done my laundry yet, let alone packed… I should probably get on that. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to work out blogging while I’m away since there isn’t any internet in the house but I shall try to figure it out…

Until next time!

Questions…

Do you like running in the rain?

What kind of hairstyle do you wear when you run?

Are you ever a victim of self-depreciating thoughts about running?