100 Consecutive Days

Today marks 100 days of running in a row. Although I know training is supposed to be a means to the real end goal which is racing, for those of us who are not competing at an elite level, I think that training itself can be an accomplishment. This is a major accomplishment for me. I don't tend to stick with things very well, as I've mentioned before in my post on the battle between now and later. When I started this streak on the first day of the year, I wasn't sure how long it would go.  I thought a month would be pretty sweet.  I figured something would come up and I would be forced to stop.

Well, things did come up, but I ran through them anyway. I have a cold now, but it's not too bad so I'm running through it.  I had a worse cold in January but I ran through that as well. Then, in February, April got a pretty bad stomach flu and I stayed home from work to take care of her and Lucy. I couldn't imagine getting a run in that day and I decided I would break my streak and focus on what was important: taking care of my family.  But then at 10 pm, I was downstairs watching the movie, Twins, while April and Lucy were upstairs finally asleep and I just kept thinking maybe I could get my run in. I was a bit torn because I felt like I was being pretty selfish, but I figured I could do it in a way so that it wouldn't affect anyone.  According to the streaking website, I only had to run 1 mile to keep the streak going. I grabbed my phone, and without changing, I ran out the door and ran up and down the street a few times until it was over a mile.  8 minutes later I was back inside and watching Twins and April and Lucy were still sleeping. After this run I realized that I was pretty committed to keeping this streak going. A couple weeks ago after increasing my weekly miles into the 60s I ran an ill-timed 10K time trial.  After that, my calf and Achilles were bothering me so I had to cut back the miles.  But I could not bring myself to stop running completely.  I now feel that I'm at a point in my training where barring any real serious injury or sickness, running a few miles at an easy pace feels like rest.  My body is just used to it and I love it.

So what's my plan now?  How long am I going to keep this going?  Truthfully, I don't know.  Perhaps after my 50 miler in May I'll need to take a break the next day, but who knows? I'm just going to keep it going until I don't.  At this point, when I wake up in the morning, the idea of not running seems crazy and that's the way I like it :)

Improvement, Expectation and Disappointment

Not trying to be dramatic or anything here.  I just wanted to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh in my head.  I've been working my butt off recently in how consistent my training has been and the amount of miles I've been racking up.  Today marks 83 days of running in a row! So, naturally, I have expectations that my fitness is improving.  And those expectations are being met.  My "easy" pace is getting faster. For example, 3 days ago I did an easy 7 mile run at 8:05 pace averaging 144 HR. Back in October, I did the exact same run with an average HR of 143 but my pace was 8:37 and it wasn't a bad run or anything.  In fact from the comments in October:

Wow! This was an awesome run. I don't know what this means but I'll take it. Maybe I was worn out from my tempo on Tuesday when I did the MAFF test yesterday. This felt great and I was able to keep a nice pace at a low hr. I hope this keeps up.

So that's a 30 second improvement for just one beat faster. This is one of many examples. I'm setting all sorts of PRs for my fast finish long runs and tempo runs. At the end of February, I did a 6 mile tempo run starting at 7:19 and ending at 7:00. I averaged 7:08 and although it may have been a bit fast, it was not all out like I used to do my tempo runs.  


But, with all of this training and improvement, I have not raced in a while.  I actually don't like to race that much.  I still get way too nervous and I think about the race for way too many days leading up to it.  Also, the shorter the race, the worse it is. Time trials are basically the same as races for me.  In fact, they may be worse because there is only me to push myself, but without the added adrenaline of a race.  This means that I always end up being disappointed when I try a time trial. Today was no different.


I was planning on running a 10K on Saturday morning, but by Thursday I had already started thinking about it way too much.  All of a sudden, this morning I had a brilliant idea! Why not just move my time trial to today and be done with it.  There were only a few negatives to this idea.  I wasn't really as rested as I would like (I did 5 easy miles yesterday, but 12 slightly faster miles on Wednesday, not to mention 27 miles on Sunday) Also, I would wear my regular shoes and not my beloved racing Green Silences.  Also, it was a bit warmer than I would like, 70 degrees. These all seemed like mostly non-issues and the idea of just doing it and then being able to relax and drink some wine tonight with April and have a good night sleep, made me go for it.


I warmed up for a little less than a mile with some strides at the end and I was already feeling the nervousness in my stomach. Ugh.  I hate that crap. It's just a time trial! Anyways, I got to it.  The first half mile, as expected, I was a bit fast at 6:48 pace.  But I was no longer feeling too bad. And I was actually feeling optimistic at this point.  Now let me back up and lay out my unrealistic expectations for the day.  I really thought I could average a sub 7 minute pace for this.  Why? Because I just told you I ran a tempo run a few weeks ago at 7:08 pace.  And I was feeling strong during that, and I could have definitely gone faster. So there it was.  A sub 7 would have put me at 43:30 which would have been a PR by over a minute (incidentally another time trial) Back to the time trial. After a half mile I felt like I was maintaining the same effort, but when I looked down at my watch, I was slowing down. By the time I hit the first mile, I had just squeaked under 7 minutes and I was hurting.  This was not going well.  I thought at this point I would be feeling strong and looking to pick up the pace.  Instead, I slowed down some more to about 7:15.  My legs were feeling tight and my HR wasn't even that high at 168, but I was in pain and pissed.  How could I be working this hard to be maintaining 7:15?! I pushed a bit harder and finished the second mile in 7:09 but still way slower than I wanted.  At this point, the thought of quitting this thing came to my mind.  This was not going well.  My legs were feeling tight and I was feeling very heavy and annoyed. But, I kept going and decided I'm not quitting no matter how disappointed I am.  I slogged through the next 3 miles in 7:16, 7:13 and 7:14. I figured I would at least pick it up a bit in the last mile but I had barely anything left.  I managed a 7:06 for the 6th mile and then a bit of a kick for the last .21 in 6:38 pace. My final time was 44:18. I did not even break 44! I was so upset with myself.  I didn't  understand what happened.  How did I manage to average the same pace as my tempo run from a few weeks ago but with a lot more effort? 


Of course all of these excuses started to fill my head.  Looking for reasons. Wrong shoes? Please. Too much running in the last several days? Possibly. A bit too warm out at 70 and I'm not acclimated? Maybe. Just a bad day? Who knows.  Excuses, excuses.  In the end, I just felt like I failed. But, then I realized something.  Despite all of this negative thinking, I did have a new 10k PR. Not by much (28 seconds,) but a PR none the less. So the reality is that I am improving. Maybe not always as fast as I want, and maybe some of these excuses do have some merit.  Maybe I shouldn't look at them as excuses, but instead as factors or considerations. The only reason I was so upset was because of the expectations I had going in to this.  And what were these expectations based on?  Why were they so high?  Because my training has been going well. Perhaps today was not my day. But today was not a race.  A time trial is not a race. I have had break through races out of no where that I did not expect based on training.  Last summer after my training had fallen off for a while I ran a new PR for 5K which was out of the blue.  That remains my highest VDOT equivalent race.  I'm not ruling anything out for my upcoming races in April.  I may need to readjust my expectations a bit, but who know what will happen come race day.  Maybe I do like racing from time to time.  Thinking about the races now, I'm getting excited again. And tonight I'm drinking wine with April and sleeping well with some easy weekend running :)

Priorities

What happened? It's March 9th, and my last post was a few weeks ago! I had planned on doing at least a post a week, and usually two, but something else has come up to take up all of my free time.  That thing is Fitcharts. Fitcharts is a new project and that's what I've been working on.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about it, but I just wanted to mention why I've been away.  I am hoping to still post here, but with less frequency.  There are definitely things I want to write about, but I think I'm going to stick to more major events like race reports, but who knows.


River To Sea

This is from the end of our first team run.  Andy hurt his knee at the

end but still joined us for the last part. He's doing much better now!

I am so psyched for River To Sea!  I think we have our team at this point. Andy, Chris, Joe, Justin, Pete, Sachin and me. Hopefully everyone will make it uninjured and ready by the time it comes. We've been doing Sunday runs now for a couple weeks, and are about to do the third one this Sunday.  I think they've been going great, and are really bringing the team together. I've been trying to take a few pictures and video to document it so I'll put some of that up from time to time.  I'm hoping to edit it all together into one thing when it's all over.  I'm always giving myself more projects to work on!

Justin, Joe and Pete at the end of a nice 5.5 mile run.
A new distance PR for Joe! He did it with no problem!

Marine Corps


One last thing before I go.  Frank and Andy and I successfully signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. You would think big deal, but it was a bit scary for a bit, because I had registered but Frank and Andy could not get in because Active.com (note, I am not linking to them) could not handle the requests! After a little while they did both get in.  It sold out in about 2 hours and 41 minutes! Which is a lot faster than I plan to complete the marathon in :)

Awesome 18 Miles Despite Insane Head Wind

Taken by Abby after I conquered my run.
I was so happy, and also wanted to show off
my awesome new compression sleeves :)

I had one of the best runs of my life this Sunday. I wanted to blog about it immediately, but things got way too hectic this week, so I'm only able to get to it now.  I planned an 18 mile long run on Sunday to make it my first 60 mile week. The plan called for 8 miles easy and then 10 miles at marathon pace. 


I had a similar run two weeks ago, but 2 miles shorter, so only 8 were at marathon pace. That run went alright, but my "marathon" pace that I set in my head was around 7:45. I was able to finish it averaging that, but it was way too hard of an effort, and by the time I finished, the idea of running 10 more miles at that pace was insane.  


I decided for this last Sunday's run to not push it as hard, so that when I finish, I'm not feeling like I've given everything I've got. The first 8 easy miles went by without a hitch and I was feeling good. I took two GUs with me and had the first one right before the faster stuff started.  It was not easy managing this with my ski gloves on.  Why was I wearing ski gloves? I'll get into the weather later on in this post. The first mile of the "marathon" pace I wanted to be in the 7:50 range to see how that felt.  Well, it did not feel that great.  I started that mile going up a hill, and then I turned into a head wind (This is the theme of this whole run) so when I was half way through it, I looked at my Garmin and realized I was pushing fairly hard to maintain an 8:10 pace.  This was very disappointing, but I pressed on hoping I would get into it as the run progressed.  After I turned again, out of the head wind, I started to speed up naturally and finished the first mile in just under 8:00 pace. 


The second mile went a lot better.  Now I started to feel more comfortable and was settling into what marathon pace should feel like.  Not too easy, but still something I could maintain for a long while. That second mile I was cruising along at sub 7:40 yet my HR was below 160.  This was great and I settled into a 7:40ish pace for the next couple miles, feeling awesome. 


And then..... 


<Insert suspenseful music here>


I turned on to Hillsborough rd. 

Me running against this ridiculous head wind

As you can see in this awesome picture I created, that stretch from mile 12 to the beginning of 15, was all nonstop, crazy head wind.  It was about 17mph and it did not let up at all. When I first turned on Hillsborough, to make matters even worse, it starts with a hill.  The combination of the hill and the headwind slowed me down to an 8:15 pace, but pushing harder than I was before when I was doing 7:40.  I was so angry.  I actually yelled "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!". Soon after I yelled this, and I got past the hill, I decided that I needed to get under 8:00 pace at least, so I pushed just a bit harder, and my pace started to come down.  That 2.3 mile stretch was a killer, but I got through it, and all under 8 pace, and truth be told, still not that crazy hard compared to my last long run.  I really felt like I had this battle with the wind, and this time, I was the winner.


After I turned off of Hillsborough, I was able to return back to my 7:40ish pace and was still feeling strong.  I was very happy at this point because I was running hard, but not giving it all.  My last mile, I took in a bit harder and came in at 7:22, but still felt great. When the run was over, I was absolutely ecstatic! The weather was so miserable, about 28 degrees but with the wind it felt like the low teens and I had the most amazing run.


Compression Sleeves


Just one last thing I wanted to tack on to the end of this.  This was my first long run wearing these compression sleeves I picked up at Prinecton Running Co.  and I just wanted to say I absolutely love them.  I plan on wearing them for all of my long runs.  I'm thinking about getting another pair as well, but they are pretty expensive at $40 a pop!

Why I Would Want To Run 50 Miles

I just registered for The Dirty German 50 Miler.  I paid $70 and it's non refundable, so I am really planning on doing it.  I just posted it on Facebook so it's real. Typing this out in my blog is making it even more real. I'm a little nervous, but mostly I'm super excited. The following blog post is my attempt at explaining how I got here. If you just want to get to the "why", just scroll to the bottom of the page.


The Idea of Running an Ultra
I've had the idea of one day running an ultra ever since Pete lent me his copy of Ultramarathon Man. In his book, Dean Karnazes writes about his experience in numerous ultramarathon events, and the incredible difficulty and reward that comes with finishing them. This is the same guy who did 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. 

Dean Karnazes

I found the book very inspiring. At the time, I had just started training for my first marathon so the idea of going farther than a marathon seemed completely out of the question. Like many non runners, I didn't even know that this was something people did, or at least I didn't really think about it.  For whatever reason, the marathon distance was long enough to be as long as anyone would ever run.  In retrospect this is of course very silly, since there are always people pushing boundaries in every direction.  It only makes sense with running and specifically marathons gaining popularity, that folks would want to do something more extreme now that everyone and there mother could finish a marathon no problem (That's not at all what I really think. Finishing a marathon in any amount of time is an incredible achievement). Even with this idea in my head, I had no real plans of ever doing one. I had yet to run even half a marathon, so the distances seemed completely insurmountable.

Scott Jurek with one of the Tarahumara 

After finishing my first marathon, I read Born To Run which was another very inspiring book.  I don't necessarily agree with everything Christopher McDougall has to say about barefoot running, but it was nevertheless an exciting read, and I loved learning about all of these amazing ultra runners.  Not to take away anything from Dean Karnazes, but I realized there was a whole sport of ultrarunning with really amazing runners like Scott Jurek who won the Western States 100 7 times in a row! And, Ann Trason who was completely dominant and won Western States 14 times and holds 20 world records.  Her pace for the women's record in the 50 mile is 6:48! That is completely insane!


After finishing this book, I really started to think that an ultra was a real possibility for me. I wasn't sure when or where, but somewhere down the road I would probably run an ultra.


Research
After my second marathon and a few triathlons, I started to read about ultras online.  When I decide I want to get into something, I tend to do a lot of research.  I read everything I can about the subject.  It's probably a bit overboard, but that's just what I do. I spent hours and hours reading articles about training, nutrition, race reports, race day preparations, etc. I couldn't get enough.  I eventually bought Relentless Forward  Progress, one of the few ultramarathon books, written by the guy from the irunfar website.  I really enjoyed the book, and the training plans he had outlined didn't seem that crazy anymore. The idea of doing an ultra went from being a possibility to becoming a certainty. I started looking for upcoming ultras in the late Spring, early Summer time frame.  I figured I wanted enough time for it to be after the Rutgers half in April but not during the heat of summer. I didn't want to do it in the fall because I really wanted to focus on the Marine Corps Marathon and plus I was excited to do one as soon as possible. 


50K or 50M
When I started looking for ultras, my first thought was to go for 50 miles right away.  The idea of doing a 50K as my first didn't seem like enough of a jump.  For my first ultra, I would be just looking to finish, and the idea of going at a slow pace made me feel like I would be fine to run another 5 miles.  50 miles still seems daunting.  When I think about the distance, I'm not sure if I can do it, and there is something exciting about that. That doubt; the not knowing.


The first race I considered was the North Face Endurance Challenge at Bear Mountain.  But, as I read more and more about the course, it turned out it was one of the more challenging 50 mile races out there, both for elevation changes and how technical the trail is. 

Too tough for a first time 50.  I'm not this crazy.

This seemed a bit too much so then I considered maybe doing the 50K course there would be a wiser choice. Then I came across another race.  The Dirty German 50 Mile. This was held a few weeks later, which gave me more time to train and more of a buffer from the half.  It was also closer, had little elevation change and the trail was mostly not technical.  Once again, a 50 mile race looked like a good possibility.  I kept going back and forth on what to do and even posted the question to the ultrarunning group at runningahead. After a few weeks of thinking it over, about a month ago, I finally decided on the Dirty German 50 Mile.


Training
Now that I had a race and a date in mind, it was time to figure out what I would do for training.  Runningahead has this great training plan feature.  I was already going to start my 12 week half marathon plan which was based on a modified Pfitzinger marathon plan I got from Advanced Marathoning (Awesome book, by the way). This plan would need to be modified to include longer long runs. I was already planning to do up to a couple 22 milers with this plan, but I needed longer runs including a 50K (31 miles).  I took the 70 mile per week 50 miler plan from Relentless Forward Progress and mixed it in with the existing plan, to create one awesome Frankenstein plan.  I'm hoping this will work OK, and I think it will. I'm not too concerned about following any one plan exactly.  There are more ways than one to prepare, and the key is knowing what pieces of the plans you need, and understanding how they fit together (i.e. don't do a hard tempo run and then follow it up with a long run at marathon pace, because you are just asking for trouble). I'm sure I'll have more blog posts talking about how the training is going, especially when it comes to long runs.  Another huge topic that I will leave for another time is nutrition, which at this point is my number one concern!


The "Why"
I've gone through talking about how I got the idea, how I did some research, I chose the distance, the race and then a training plan. But, I haven't really addressed why. Why do I want to run 50 miles? Most people I talk to would say it's crazy and excessive. A marathon is already too far.  If I want more of a challenge, why not run a marathon faster? Why go longer? Firstly, I do want to get faster in the marathon, and all distances for that matter.  I'm hoping that one day I'll qualify for Boston, and beat my high school self in a 5K. 


An ultramarathon is a completely different kind of challenge.  When I go on my long runs during marathon training and I'm all alone on a trail and the level of effort is low, it feels amazing. I am doing exactly what I should be doing. I love being outside. I often wonder how far I can go. Can I just keep running? How much distance could I cover before I couldn't go on anymore? But, this doesn't really answer the question.  The truth is, I really think this is going to be fun. I know how that sounds.  I know I'm going to be in pain, and there will be times where I will want to stop (most likely multiple times). I haven't read too many ultra race reports where the races went really smoothly and just as expected.  Something will go wrong. But, I'm not that worried about it for some reason, and I'm a big worrier.  I don't know what that means.  I'm going to try to be prepared.  I'll run a lot of miles, and have a plan for what I'm going to eat and drink, but no matter what I do, I will be unprepared by the very nature of the event. Maybe that's the most compelling part of it?  That it will be an adventure. 


So, I guess that's all I have to say about it. It's hard to come up with good reasons for why anyone does anything.  You can always go one deeper with "why". I just know I'm excited, and I'm completely OK with most people not understanding why.  

200 Miles!

Another easy goal goes down! I ran 200.7 miles in January, breaking my monthly miles record of 191.5 last February and another one of my easy goals.  One month into 2012 and I have already reached three of my easy goals which means I'm either doing great or my goals were too easy. I'm going to go with the former and be happy about it :)




Headlamp

Took this after my run, pleased with the headlamp

My first run of February was my longest mid week long run ever.  I ran with Frank again and we did 13 miles on the tow path, in the rain, at 6:30, while it was still dark.  I was so glad to not do this alone because something about running in the rain in the dark is depressing to me.  Running with a friend makes all the difference.  I was excited for this run because I got to use my headlamp for the first time. I really wanted to try it out because I'll be needing it as I keep increasing my distance and may find myself running in the dark on trails. It definitely came in handy for the first 20 or so minutes.





Beaver

I did not take this picture since I did not have my phone with me, but
this was the closest picture I could find to convey the sphere-like shape
 of this big guy.

I had another animal encounter today. Frank and I came across a beaver on the tow path.  I didn't remember them being so fat, but this guy was like a large ball of fur. You couldn't even see his legs as he scurried into the canal. It happened pretty quickly but I was sure it was a beaver because of his tail. I'm glad I didn't have to have a show down with him, although Frank was with me and he is a 4th (at least 3rd) degree black belt so I probably would have let him handle it.

The Battle Between Now and Later

Sun rising, from this Sunday morning's run

WARNING: Like my morning run, this post will be long and hard to finish, but definitely worth it in the end. Possibly?

Lazy Runner

I am lazy by nature. When I was a kid, I pretty much did no homework. I was a terrible procrastinator, and as I became an adult this didn't really change too much.  On occasion, I have bursts of inspiration, and I can work feverishly on something for a while.  Usually though, I give up on it before I'm done. I'm also a talker and not much of a doer. I have lots of ideas, but I don't follow through.  I have entertained the thought of being ambitious many times through out my life, but I ultimately lack the drive, discipline, desire, whatever.

When I started running again 3 years ago, I don't think most of my family and friends thought it was going to stick.  They figured it would be like many of my other hobbies that last for a few months and then go away. Honestly, I didn't think I would continue with it either. Especially when I first started, which is mostly what this post is about.  How did I go from being lazy to running every day so far this year, and getting up at 6:30 on a Sunday for a 16 miler? Well the truth is I'm still lazy in other aspects of my life, but not in running.

Radiolab

About a year ago, I heard an awesome Radiolab about how you negotiate with yourself when making choices.  The piece called "You vs. You" was specifically talking about quitting smoking, but it can be applied to any kind of choice to better yourself. It's the battle between now and later. Instant gratification now versus a better payoff later.  Should I continue to sleep in my cozy, warm bed or face the dark, cold morning and start running? If I stay in bed, that will feel much, much better right now. If I go out running, that will feel awful but I guess I'll get some benefit from it eventually down the road. The problem is our brains are wired to favor an immediate payoff.  In order to overcome this instant gratification and actually do things we don't really want to do, it's not enough to convince ourselves that this will be "worth it" later on.  

In the episode, this woman comes up with an idea out of desperation to quit smoking. She tells her friend that if she ever smokes again, she will donate $5000 to the KKK. This may sound ridiculous, but it worked for her.  She would have dreams of smoking and would wake up and really want to smoke. But, then immediately she would start thinking of the KKK and how absolutely awful it would be for them to have any of her money and she would be disgusted by it. After this segment, a neuroscientist came on and explained why what she did worked for her.  She took the battle in her mind from now versus later, and turned it into now versus now.  Because she associated the idea of the KKK with smoking, the decision became smoking a cigarette equals donating money to the KKK.  This worked much better than smoking a cigarette is not good for you and may because you to die of cancer later. It's the later part that ends up losing a lot of the time.

From Lazy to Crazy

Little later in the run when the sun was up a bit higher.
I love running by this farm on Willow rd.

So, what does this have to do with me? After high school cross country, I tried running a handful of times over the years, but it never lasted for longer than a few weeks.  To anyone who has started running after a long period of not running, the first weeks are awful.  Running is no fun.  You are in a constant state of discomfort so the whole time you just want to stop. Eventually I would stop until I would try again a few years later.  This repeated a few times. Three years ago, my friend, Pete started to run again and decided almost on a whim that he was going to run a marathon.  Kind of like a bucket list deal. This idea sounded kind of crazy to me, because that distance is completely ridiculous for non-runners or beginning runners. But, something about it piqued my interest. It was the craziness of it. He had found this plan that had runs of 12, 15, 20 miles on it! I saw these numbers and thought, is it possible?  Could I ever run that far? And, I'll admit that it wasn't just how crazy this would be, but the bragging rights that came with it.  If I did this, then I become part of this club of crazy people that run these distances and that was immensely appealing to me. After a few weeks of "helping him train" for the marathon, I decided I was going to go for it myself and I signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon.  Now I had this goal on the horizon, and I spent money on it, but that still didn't address the problem of now versus later. On any given day, I still needed to convince myself to go run instead of not run which is usually more enjoyable. The marathon was a ways a way so what was it that made me keep running day after day?

Stats Are My Trick

This is probably not what you were expecting.  Really? Stats?  What the heck does that even mean?  I frequently have spreadsheets that I use to keep track of all sorts of things in my life.  Going to Disney World? Better make a spreadsheet to track the families' favorite attractions.  Trying to lose weight? Better track it with a spreadsheet. Are the kids growing alright? Spreadsheet. Here as well, I had a running spreadsheet to keep track of every run that I did. The pleasure of knowing that when I was done with my run, I would feel great and I got to enter the data in a spreadsheet was the tipping point for me. I could keep track of my distance and duration and therefore have my pace. And, I could have graphs.  So many different graphs! It's true. I'm a total graph nerd. After a few months, I realized that I had outgrown excel, and really needed something more sophisticated. I had considered creating my own web app but then I found runningahead. And as you can see, there are a ton of graph options. In the need for even more data to track, I bought a Garmin watch with an HR strap so now I have HR data as well and even more graphs. I am in personal running statistics nirvana.

Nowadays

Nowadays, going out for a run has gotten a lot easier for me.  I actually enjoy the run itself, and not just finishing it.  I love being outside. I love running for a long time and being alone. But, on early mornings when it's cold and dark and I am warm in my bed, I love that when I'm done, I will enter the data from my run, and I will see what my pace was, and what my weekly miles are and what my HR was like.  Then I will take a look at the graphs and there will be another data point to look at. 

Stats may not be your thing, but you can find your own trick. Find whatever the "now" is that can hold you over in the beginning or for those especially difficult days. If I can get over my laziness and keep running, than you can get over whatever excuses you are making.