Tedy’s Team Group Run – 8 Miles

Layers - check Under Armour all tucked in - check

Garmin secure - check

Gloves on - check

Realizing at that moment that you have to pee ... UGH!!

Yes! That once again was my morning. Gotta love cold-weather running. :P

I took my ENERGYBits and stretched in my living room. Best all-natural pre-workout fuel in my opinion!

My teammate Meg, her husband Joshua and her brother Justin (also a member of Tedy's Team) picked me up this morning around 7:15am to head to our second team run of the season - a nice 8-miler on the docket.

When we met last week it was a balmy 12 degrees! :O) Today we were looking at high 30s/low 40s for the run. Oh New England!

The group - which is actually compiled of about 10 different charities - set out from Joint Ventures at 8am. I headed outside to have my Garmin "locate satellites" with everyone else and it just wouldn't connect. Everyone else's were working without problem. Since I am tracking all of my mileage this year for the goal of set, I needed my Garmin working. So I told my usual running group to go on ahead without me and I would catch up.

Ugh! Not how I wanted to start the run. I really wanted to run with people. It ended up taking my Garmin an extra 5 minutes to locate a satellite. I was finally off at 8:13am.

My headspace just wasn't right. I was trying to change it to think of how awesome the weather was and how excited I was to rock my Christmas socks again! :)

With the uncharacteristically warm weather today I had also put on too many layers so I was getting hot within the first mile. I was wearing my knit Patriots hat - as I do on almost every winter run - and I was sweating. So I tucked the hat into the back of my pants and make sure my shirt and vest would keep it secure.

Since I was thinking about so much, the first mile (9:04) passed quickly. I was at least 5 minutes behind the rest of the group so I wasn't sure if I would actually catch up to anyone or if I would just see everyone as we run an out-and-back route for our training runs.

Mile 2 (9:30) and Mile 3 (9:08) weren't anything special as I continued to try to get my head into a better space. I didn't want to be dwelling on things or miserable the entire run.

Thankfully I caught up to my teammate Jackie just after Mile 3 and invited myself to run with her for 4 miles. It was great to chat with her. Jackie has completed 13 marathons (PR of 3:55) and is currently training for her first Ironman (Lake Placid in July 2014). So it was great to chat with her about that, her past races and fundraising tips (she is a fundraising superstar!)

Having someone to chat with really turned my run around. We also ran with our teammate Cat for portions of Mile 3-7 too. I love picking these ladies' brains about triathlons since they are both season vets in that field. They were both there this summer when I did my first outdoor swim in the wetsuit days before my first triathlon. So thank you ladies for answering all those Facebook messages! ;)

Since Jackie was starting Ironman training she was on orders to scale back her usually speedy pace. I was loving it since I needed to work on keeping a consistently slow pace, which is needed for Dopey Challenge in a couple weeks.

We averaged about 10 minutes over those for miles:

Mile 4: 10:008 Mile 5: 9:58 Mile 6: 10:01 Mile 7: 9:59

I didn't realize until thinking about it now that I didn't once look at my pace while we were running together. I was so caught up in the conversation that I let that part of the run go. It was freeing. :)

Another bonus of running the same course week in and week out is becoming so familiar with your surroundings that you aren't worrying at all about make the right turn or getting lost. HUGE help!

I parted ways with Jackie for the last mile as she needed a pit stop. I decided to let the training wheels come off so to speak on the last mile and just go. I knew that Meg and crew would be waiting for me to finish and I didn't want to hold up their day any longer.

But, I had to stop and take a pic of a great sign I had seen at a random water stop earlier in the run.

Awesome, right? It had me thinking about cookies for quite some time.

This water stop was run by Molly, the President and Founder of Blue Trailer. Blue Trailer is a new local company that will be renting mobile lockers at road races. Brilliant idea in my opinion. It was so nice to meet Molly and can't wait to check out the mobile lockers at an upcoming race.

After saying bye to Molly, it was time to head back into Kenmore Square. As I ran over the final little incline/bridge into Kenmore, I looked to my right, there was Fenway Park and I remembered how lucky I am to train in such a special town. I turned back in front of me and there was the iconic CITGO sign.

Oh Boston you will always have my heart!

Right after snapping this photo, I hit the 8-mile mark. Mile 8 came in at an 8:10 min/mile pace. I guess the legs felt great.

This 8-mile run marked my longest run since completing the Rock 'n' Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon on October 27.

With the Dopey Challenge just two weeks away, it felt great to have a nice long run done and on Day 25 of the Runner's World Run Streak as well. Yes I would've liked it to be a pain-free 20-miler, but I am working with what I can right now.

Overall, this run was a tad trying at the beginning, but ended on a great note. Plus, it was pretty sweet to see my year-to-date mileage hit 1,089 after the run.

I love reconvening with the group post-run to stretch and hear how everyone else's runs went. It is a such a great community. As I've said I do most of my runs alone so it is great to find a group that I gel with and am happy to run with. Plus, you can always find someone who is running at your pace.

Plus, we are all crazy enough to take this undertaking on while raising money for a great cause - whichever charity it is that they are from. :)

Unfortunately it was also at that point that I realized I lost my knit Patriots hat somewhere along the course. :( At some point, it fell out of the back of my pants and was gone. I was almost in tears since I had an emotional connection with that hat. Now I will try and find a new hat for 2014.

Until next week's run...

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Week 2 Workouts:

Sunday, December 15: 55 min Zumba class and 5k run

Monday, December 16: 3.9 mile run and 50 min Spin class

Tuesday, December 17: 3 mile run

Wednesday, December 18: 4 mile run, 17 min walk on treadmill and 55 min yoga class

Thursday, December 19: 3 mile run

Friday, December 20: 3 mile run and 2 hour coffee/walk date with a friend

Saturday, December 21: 8 mile group run

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Looking To Donate

Are you interested in helping to fight Stroke? Please feel free to click on the link HERE to share a donation. Wondering how much? How about $8 in honor of the 8 miles I ran today with Tedy's Team?