My half marathon training had me scheduled to run 12 miles as my long run this week, plus speed work a tempo run and workout/lift. On paper it all looked good, but in my head I was thinking about the oppressive heat, which had me in a tailspin every day casuing me to wonder how I could do this long distance in the high humidity and temps hoovering at 90 in the morning and 104 in the afternoon. Of course I began panicing on Wednesday, and from there started to contemplate my workouts and the weather. I pulled myself together and did the logical thing to accomodate my goal which was to start moving appointments and responsibilites around as to free up my Friday morning, this morning, so I could run on the coolest day. Bam, that wasn't so hard, but now my head shifted to the distance of 13 miles ....I was nervous about running all this way, and HOW could I do it, and HOW would it feel, and gosh 13 miles is a long way to run! I was literally making myself a nervous wreck and I'm not sure why because I had done 11 miles the week before. I think the fact that I jumped 2 miles from 11 to 13 when I had been only adding one per week got head over analyzing. I saw Coach Lisa on Thursday and she calmed my fears and reminded me of my fitness level to date, and how I have already done the hard work...this movitvation helped me. Later in the evening last night as I was loading my running pack with GU, gatorade and water bottles, I took a moment to read some inspirational quotes, and the one that stuck with me...PANIC IS THE ENEMY OF OUR IMAGINATION." That's so true becasue half the time we don't even know what we are capable of and what we are truly made of. Panic is the enemy of our imagination was my mantra this morning as I ran my rehearsal half marathon! We all must stop over analyzing the situation and prepare for it, and then boldly go for it! As Alberto says...Stop thinking and just RUN!
With running, athletics, sports and in life let us condition ourselves by training smart and implementing courage and comittment so that we will then surely succeed!
Finally, I am so relieved to have completed my full 13 miles at least once before race day and --------I still have 3 weeks to train!
More to follow in the next few days, but in the meantime stay hydrated, happy and keep moving.
Yours in energy,
The Roadrunner
