Out of the Comfort Zone

This morning I woke up weary and tired and did NOT feel much like running. It had been a late night as Malks decided that 5 year-olds are perfectly OK to stay up well past 11pm, periodically dropping into their parents' bedroom to update us on some uber-important news or request snacks. Yeah... The night before he had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from soccer and never woke up, didn't eat dinner, and subsequently slept through the entire night in his uniform. I guess he made up for that extra rest.

Anyway, so here I was staring at the clock on my bedside table as it ticked away the minutes...

• 5:30 alarm goes off and I had already been awake for a while.
• 5:35 my left leg is off the bed but the rest of the body simply won't follow.
• 5:40 and now I'm sitting up on the edge of the bed wondering why my eyelids are made of lead.
• 5:45 in the bathroom staring at my reflection and thinking that anyone who looks like this should definitely get more sleep before subjecting others to their presence.
• 5:50 dragging my ass down the stairs hoping that the Garmin won't lock onto a satellite and, therefore, give me an excuse to not run.
• 5:51 the Garmin finds satellites and I curse NASA and all manmade celestial objects.
• 5:55 and the running shoes are on, I'm on the front porch stretching my concrete calves.
• 5:56 I step gingerly down the stairs and wonder where the hell I should run.
• 5:57 and I'm off mumbling "damn it" with ever step.

So, there I was, stumbling along aimlessly in the early morning. I felt completely lethargic and didn't know how I would make it through without completely growing to hate running, mornings, or both. Not surprisingly things started to improve and I began to wonder if shocking my body a little bit with some faster running would be a good cure for not only the boredom but also for my marathon training.

As I got close to the high school track that I ran on last year, but haven't hit up even once in 2010, I made a snap decision and got on the hamster wheel. The Garmin went beep, indicating that I had just finished my third kilometre, and so it was the perfect time to pick up the pace. I ran:

• 400 out of my comfort zone (1:52, 4:40/km)
• 200 in my comfort zone
• 400 out of my comfort zone (1:46, 4:24/km) 
• 200 in my comfort zone
• 800 out of my comfort zone (3:32, 4:25/km)
• 200 in my comfort zone
• 800 out of my comfort zone (3:30, 4:21/km)
• 200 in my comfort zone

Then I jogged home to complete a sleepy, but rather interesting 8km. It was not hard or anything, but I ran the faster bits at around the 4:25/km pace, which is not super fast or anything, but definitely not that comfortable for me.

It remains to be seen how my legs take to this. I hope I can incorporate a bit more of "out of the comfort zone" running over the course of the next two months if only to make things more interesting as well as physically rewarding.