JTG: Today I will learn from my experiences and from the talent of others.
MILES 338
OK. I am back on track. T-4 days and counting. Like 96ish hours. well maybe closer to 116…..but who is counting. Oh ok yes. YES. I am totally counting. I did a 4 mile steady state run… easy…. it felt fantastic. I got THIS from the run coach about my weekend splits. "That's what I am talking about!!!"
I am happy, rested, and well. and I FEEL good. My trainer told me today NO heavy lifting this week…. and the old me would have been really annoyed… because I can totally handle it… but the today me was just fine with it. I said ok. I ate a lot of food, I taught some great yoga, I took a nap and then ran. Oh and I did homework, dishes, laundry and all of the other Mom stuff….. but I had a great, healthy day! I feel good about Saturday.
So. I took a giant leap. I committed to going to the running group tomorrow for my 8 mile hard run day. DEEP BREATH. GULP down a ton of water…… I am scared half to death. And I have a calm zen like feeling at the same time. This is what I do. I run. How nice to meet other runners. And some encouragement is nice….. And there is this saying I am repeating lately…….
We learn from our experiences and from the talent of others.
I always draw upon past training and races when my miles seem difficult. I remember points in my marathons where I was beyond broken… sure I couldn't move another mile….. my first marathon when at mile 23 my body suddenly felt like it was filled with sand and I could hardly move…. and of course this past Chicago when I almost sat down and became a DNF. I remember the Goruck…… the darkness as the night fell upon us….. wet from the river, cold from the journey, exhausted beyond belief. Running to make our goal times….. carrying team weights of up to 70 pds at times…. in complete darkness all night long pushing on….. I remember the sun coming up thinking we made it….. and then that final low crawl at 8am in the wet muddy grass of the park, when I had completely given over to the exhaustion, the pain, and the heaviness of carrying a brick weighted backpack for over 12 hours and the impossibility of it all. I remember laying down putting my face and stomach in that grass, the weight of my body and my ruck sack as I pulled with my hands and pushed with my legs just repeating over and over again…. crawl pull…. move forward…just crawl and pull… knowing as I crawled we still had 3 more miles to go in our journey….. In all of these instances my physical and mental strength did not help me….. those things were long gone…. what pushed me forward was true grit and determination and guts. When it comes down to it, you have your body……your mind…. and then your heart. When there is nothing left you push through with your heart.. and that is when it happens….. that is when you realize who you are and what you are truly capable of…… That is where I want to be… in that zone….. when you get there absolutely nothing can stop you. You become Unbreakable. AND there is nothing more beautiful and more magnificent than unbreakable spirit………It is a crazy journey…. I think sometimes along the way… everyone gets lost….. and getting lost is ok, when you are a distance runner…. it's just a few extra miles to train!
FOOD:
OK. I am back on track. T-4 days and counting. Like 96ish hours. well maybe closer to 116…..but who is counting. Oh ok yes. YES. I am totally counting. I did a 4 mile steady state run… easy…. it felt fantastic. I got THIS from the run coach about my weekend splits. "That's what I am talking about!!!" I am happy, rested, and well. and I FEEL good. My trainer told me today NO heavy lifting this week…. and the old me would have been really annoyed… because I can totally handle it… but the today me was just fine with it. I said ok. I ate a lot of food, I taught some great yoga, I took a nap and then ran. Oh and I did homework, dishes, laundry and all of the other Mom stuff….. but I had a great, healthy day! I feel good about Saturday.
So. I took a giant leap. I committed to going to the running group tomorrow for my 8 mile hard run day. DEEP BREATH. GULP down a ton of water…… I am scared half to death. And I have a calm zen like feeling at the same time. This is what I do. I run. How nice to meet other runners. And some encouragement is nice….. And there is this saying I am repeating lately…….We learn from our experiences and from the talent of others.
Yes. I love that. I want to learn.. I want to get better. Perhaps in my life I have quit many things when the going got rough… perhaps I do give up when it's not easy( admittedly, a lot comes easy). But, not this time. I want this too bad! So an interesting though has started to form in my head….. I am a pretty solid middle pack leader. Often this is how a race plays out…. OFF we go….. run run run and we are all together battling for position our running groove our zone…. and then as it begins to even out the front pack pulls away…. It happens every time….. no matter how hard I try to stay in that front pack…. they pull away…. and then I am alone. In 5ks it is startling. I mean there is NO one around me…. front pack, me, middle pack. In halves there are more middle pack lead stragglers like me and even some middle pack leaders ahead of me. But not many. And I worked really hard to get here…. to go from the back of the middle to the front. I remember grueling puke sessions on the track… how could I forget….. I remember laying down after a particularly hard 10 mile run sure i was dead….. and out of all of that I evolved…. to front middle pack runner. Now…. I have to work even harder to get into that front pack. And it will be a slow, painful, frustrating LONG process. It took me 4 solid years to get where I am. And I am ready to commit to the journey of where I am going. How ever long this takes, I will not quit. I will not give up. Failure is not an option. There will be slow days. Days that seem like I will never be good enough. There will be tired days, when the last thing I want to do is get my miles in. There will be hurt days. There will be great days when I am convinced I was born to do this. And through it all I will keep working hard to get where I want to go.
I always draw upon past training and races when my miles seem difficult. I remember points in my marathons where I was beyond broken… sure I couldn't move another mile….. my first marathon when at mile 23 my body suddenly felt like it was filled with sand and I could hardly move…. and of course this past Chicago when I almost sat down and became a DNF. I remember the Goruck…… the darkness as the night fell upon us….. wet from the river, cold from the journey, exhausted beyond belief. Running to make our goal times….. carrying team weights of up to 70 pds at times…. in complete darkness all night long pushing on….. I remember the sun coming up thinking we made it….. and then that final low crawl at 8am in the wet muddy grass of the park, when I had completely given over to the exhaustion, the pain, and the heaviness of carrying a brick weighted backpack for over 12 hours and the impossibility of it all. I remember laying down putting my face and stomach in that grass, the weight of my body and my ruck sack as I pulled with my hands and pushed with my legs just repeating over and over again…. crawl pull…. move forward…just crawl and pull… knowing as I crawled we still had 3 more miles to go in our journey….. In all of these instances my physical and mental strength did not help me….. those things were long gone…. what pushed me forward was true grit and determination and guts. When it comes down to it, you have your body……your mind…. and then your heart. When there is nothing left you push through with your heart.. and that is when it happens….. that is when you realize who you are and what you are truly capable of…… That is where I want to be… in that zone….. when you get there absolutely nothing can stop you. You become Unbreakable. AND there is nothing more beautiful and more magnificent than unbreakable spirit………It is a crazy journey…. I think sometimes along the way… everyone gets lost….. and getting lost is ok, when you are a distance runner…. it's just a few extra miles to train!
Coffee
Protien Shake
Almonds
3 chicken spinach guacamole and salsa tacos and 2 cheese stuffed jalapeños
Almonds
Beef and sweet potato stew
Cashews
Pineapple
water water water
Work out
light cardio/strength/movement….
Yoga
4 mile recovery run
ON DECK: morning light strength training/evening 8 mile SSR at 85% 10k pace….. with the running group…. it's actually a "racing group" but today I am just a runner…. I am not ready to be a racer… that is saturday….
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