The mind is an amazing tool, and wields amazing power. "you can do whatever you set your mind to"...it's something we all say to our kids - or at least I did to mine, and my Mum did to me. Somehow though I think we sometimes forget that for ourselves as adults...it's one of the things I love about triathlon, and especially training for Ironman. I am reminded daily that we really can do whatever we set our minds to.
I'm pretty tired. Had a lot of long training hours and sessions in the last few weeks. Yesterday's long brick was good, but tough. I'm feeling some aches and pains starting. Truth be told, I didn't hold up any great expectations for today's long run. But I got up this am, and though I didn't get up at 5, I did get up at 530, and was on the road running before 6.
That first half mile was BRUTAL. God almighty. My hamstrings were so tight, it hurt to do anything, never mind run, and of course there is that beast of a hill at the start of the loop. But I learned a long time ago that I couldn't make any decisions on the state of the run in the first km.
body: "psst, hey brain"
brain: "ssshhhh. we're running"
body: "hey, I think we might need to stop"
brain: "you're fine, don't worry"
body: "no seriously, I can't do this"
brain: "will you be quiet already, you are just fine, now keep running"
body: "if you don't stop now, I may have to kick your ass"
brain: "I'll show you kick your ass - now HTFU!!"
...
brain: "good body. now. one mile at a time. that's all you have to do."
So I got up the hill, and to my favourite part of the loop - the long slow downhill - and it got better. And by the time I'd got to that spot, I had decided to just go with it, do the full run as prescribed, and just let it be whatever pace it was going to be, quite honestly thinking I might not get any better than a 10-minute mile. And so I did. And before long my pace was back to where it should be for a warm-up. And even that hill didn't get me - in fact the third time up was kind of amazing - just looked at it a tree at a time, and suddenly I was done, and quite honestly, I don't remember running up the whole thing. All told, I ran the first 8.5 miles of warmup at a 9:30 pace; removing that first mile, was probably more like a 9:15 pace. This week was 5-8 miles in race pace, almost double what I've been doing at race pace, so I figured the last 2 loops would do it. Went into the fourth and fifth loops, and somehow just managed to keep increasing the pace. Took it one moment at a time, just like I will in the race. Pace just kept getting a little higher, and I finished strong. Total pace for the last 6 miles was 8:27. Given the humidity and how tired I am, I am thrilled with this pace for this distance, and if I can come anywhere close to it for the race, I will have exceeded my expectations.
I haven't done much else this weekend but train and rest. I'm thinking it will be similar for the rest of the summer. Oh well. Guess the hardwood floors will have to wait. But a massage...yes, that will not wait! And all I can think about now for some strange reason is a big chocolate cupcake...gonna have to go find one.
Happy Training!!
Kat
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