Eureka!

This past week, I've been struggling unusually with our runs.  Now, this makes no sense to me, because the week prior, I was pretty comfortable.  Today, in undertaking our 5.4-mile group run, I realized something:

My sports bra is too tight.

Laugh if you will, but aside from my (brand-new, kickass) shoes, the only thing different from last Saturday's (awesome) run was my sports bra.  Today, during the run, I decided to pull it away from my ribcage, just to see what would happen, and then - and only then - was I able to get one of those breaths that reaches down to the bottom of your belly and fills up both of your lungs with the redemption of air.  Houston, we have a problem.

This has been happening all week, but I never thought to put two and two together until, um, today.  I mean, my sports bra, too tight?  C'mon, I can power through that! 

It seems, however, that it's less a matter of what I can power through, and more a matter of being comfortable with essential life functions while I'm putting my body through rigorous exercise.  I really ought to stop being so stubborn.

I wore that sports bra from 10:30 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m.  I'm actually still having trouble breathing now.  I need to listen to my body more often.

A few more things I realized today:

• I'm really not a Texan.  We ran at 11:00 a.m. this morning at Terry Hershey Park (so all of the training teams in the Houston area could run together, and then enjoy an Honored Teammate Potluck afterwards - see here for what an "honored teammate" is), and the sun was beating down like no tomorrow.  What kind of trail has zero shade?  I boo at that!  Couple that with the unforgiving sports bra and humidity that's omnipresent in this region, I felt really heavy and clumsy.
• I don't like pavement.  I don't know what it is about pavement, but I find it unfriendly and uninviting.  I missed Memorial Park - the traditional training stompin' grounds for Team Memorial - somethin' fierce today.  However, I do realize I'm probably going to have to get over my dislike for pavement, since every marathon I've ever seen has the runners on pavement, and not lovely, crunchy gravel trails.  Phooey.

I like this video.  It makes everything, from the marathon to Team in Training to curing blood cancers, all feel so touchable.  And do-able.  And conquerable.