1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Well, it’s been a year since I started this blog. If you haven’t poked around my blog (other than reading my current posts) you’ll find a welcome post as well as some of my history under the “more about me” section off to the right. That’s were you’ll find stuff like how I started running, and what my PRs are, as well as 100 odd things about me – just in case you don’t “know” me well enough yet.

I mentioned that my next race will be an 8K on March 19th. Here’s my report from last year’s race. I thought a lot about this upcoming race during this morning’s workout. I ran 8 x 1 mile with 1 minute rest. During the first 5 miles I imagined that they were miles from the race and I thought about each of the affirmations I mentioned yesterday. On the last 3 reps, I worked on the last 3 affirmations again.

One thing I added to the “when I act ‘as if’ I get a lift” affirmation is the ‘as if’ part. Some books say to act as if you’re winning the race or leading the Olympics, etc. Sometimes I’ll act as if I’m out on a training run with Jenna and we’re cruising along. I’ve even acted as if I were a woman and battling for one of the top-5 or 10 spots overall, rather than being the 100th man. Anyway, this year I’m going to act as if I’m Mark. I don’t Mark personally, only from getting passed by him 3 TIMES last year in 3 separate races.

Mark starts out slow and picks up the pace as the race progresses. Last year he passed me during the 2nd half of this 8K and went on to beat me by 36 seconds. 6 weeks later he beat passed me around the halfway point of a 10K and ended up beating me by 52 seconds. A week later he passed me about 25k into a 30k race and beat me by 1:35. From there he went on to set a huge PR at Grandma’s with a 2:50:35 and then PR’d again at Twin Cities in 2:49:07. This year I plan on acting as if I’m Mark.

Back to my 8 x 1 mile repeats. They were a little slower than I would have liked; starting at 7:15 and working down to 6:45, but not bad. I felt a lot like Mike describes in his post today. The downside about feeling awesome on Tuesday’s hills and having a great workout is that it takes awhile to recover. I want every workout to feel that awesome, but I don’t want to be rested for every workout. With that said, I don’t put too much stock in my times for these workouts. I’m just trying to put in a harder effort and boost my fitness.

Today’s quote probably has little meaning to anyone other than me. One day a few years ago I was doing a tempo run through a residential area, probably running around 6:30 pace. A little boy, maybe 6-8 years old, was playing in his front yard as I ran by and he said this out loud. I still think about it often when I need a pick-me-up.

Quote of the day:
“He’s flying.”