I’ve never been much of a co-dependent or “group” type of person. When it comes to important stuff, I’ve always kind of preferred to do my own thing.

Indecision and inefficiency drive me absolutely crazy, and I sometimes find that when I’m with other people or in a group trying to get something done, I’m just way less efficient then I would be on my own.

Case in point: I very, very, very rarely studied with anyone else in University, group projects and group meetings drove me absolutely up the wall and around the corner, shopping for an important dress or for something specific that I really needed with someone else in tow rarely ever worked out…..you get the picture.

Don’t get me wrong; I like to think I’m a pretty social being when it comes time to relax and have fun, but there’s definitely a bit of “lone wolf” in me as well.

That lone wolf comes out big time when it comes to running. I am very, very uncomfortable running with other people.

If you asked me why, I would probably give you a couple of reasons related to people running at different paces, trying to fill the space by making small talk, the flexibility to start/end the run when you want to…and the list goes on. The real reason is probably something to do with the fact that I’m not at all confident in my running ability, and if I go out with somebody and feel like I need to stop or slow down or shorten my route or whatever else, then they’ll think “what a fat, pathetic, out of shape loser she is”.

In reality – I know (or seriously hope!) that nobody that I would be out running with would ever think that about me, so it’s a totally silly concern, but hey, what can you do.

On Friday night, I was scheduled to do my first “official” long run of Half Marathon training, which was 10km. I was looking forward to it all week, and felt raring to go on Friday. Around 3:30pm I got a text from Matt asking when I was planning to go out running, and I replied as soon as I was done work around 5:30. He then asked if he could come with me since he was looking for a recovery run himself.

As I look back at our texting back and forth, the conversation is too funny to not post it verbatim, so here you go, a typical conversation between Matt and I via text message at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon:

Matt: I can go with you? I’m looking for an 8-10….

Sara: Well I’m doing 10….but slow….

Matt: I need a recovery run, your call though

Sara: Okay, but no talking

Matt: How about….talking but no iPod?

Sara: No. Absolutely not.

Matt: Haha, okay fine, I can be quiet.

Now that is true love right there.

Anyways, all said and done we did head out for our run together (after eating a couple of slices of pizza before hitting the road – what the heck is with me and pizza surrounding my long runs?!).

In case I haven’t been abundantly clear in previous posts, Matt is a special breed of human when it comes to running. I’m pretty sure he could have walked along beside me at the pace I was running, but bless his heart he never complained about my glacial pace.

We did a loop of 6km, stopped back at my house for a quick washroom break, and then jumped right back out to finish off the remaining 4km. I was totally amazed to find myself making comments about things along the road (you know, like the guy that was hiding behind the telephone pole and scared the bajesus out of me when I ran past him because I didn’t see him there) and actually chatting a bit as we ran!

Side note: I’d love to say that I’m making good progress in weaning myself off of my iPod in preparation for Around the Bay, but that would be a filthy lie. I think I’m leaning more towards the game plan of doing all of my training with my iPod and then just giving ‘er without it for the first time on race day and seeing if I crash and burn. Just to keep things interesting.

The last couple of kilometres kind of sucked because that nagging foot pain that I’ve had kind of off and on ever since the November Quarterly workshop really flared up and my foot was kind of numb and very sore for the last little bit. I would have certainly stopped if I was on my own and walked the rest of the way home, but I was glad to have Matt there to keep me going.

Overall, I really enjoyed having a running buddy! Who knew! Maybe there’s a bit of “pack runner” in me after all!

I wonder if I could trick Matt into doing some more of my longer runs with me! And on that topic, this week I’ve got a 5K run scheduled for Wednesday and a 12km run scheduled for Friday night! I’ve got a huge week coming up at the gym next week with it being new release week (stay tuned for a full rundown of release week and what it’s all about coming up later this week), and I really need to be taking extra good care of my body this week.

I guess I’ll also need to reintroduce my bum to a bike seat at some point. Sigh.

What does your week look like?? Do you have any big workouts planned out??

Have a great Monday afternoon!

• Uncategorized