Tuesday, February 13, 2007

8 POUNDS

Over the weekend, while my mini-motivational meltdown was taking place, I had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to blog about. Then yesterday I started talking about the cross-country meet and all those thoughts went out the window.

My main thought dealt with being an analytical numbers-type and how that comes into play with my confidence when I know I’m not running as much as I was last year at this time. I tend to think (for the most part) more is better. And the numbers for the first six weeks of 2007 don’t lie, when compared to 2006; 385 miles vs. 456 miles.

As I’ve said before, ideally I’d like to remain healthy past April. Then I could easily make up that mileage difference. However, that’s still 10 weeks away. I need to get (and keep) my act together. Grandma’s Marathon is only 18 weeks away.

Luckily I know I’m fit (due to my weekly up-tempo runs), based on my half marathon results. However, I haven’t really done any up-tempo work since the half marathon two-and-a-half weeks ago. I need to get back to doing one of those workouts each week. If I can’t do that and I can’t keep my mileage consistently “high”, I’m really going to be screwed.

The good news is that this week has started of really well. After 16 on Saturday, I ran two easy 6 mile runs yesterday. This morning I made it 11 miles, including two sets of four hill repeats.

While it looks like temps will be below zero the next two mornings, it’s supposed to warm up to 20 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Hopefully I can motivate myself to a 20 mile run too.

Oh yeah, this doesn’t really go with anything, but I weighed myself before and after putting on my -10 degree running outfit; 143 pounds vs. 151 pounds - eight pounds of gear. I thought about adding up the dollar amount of gear, but thought better of it. I’d like to at least THINK running is an inexpensive sport.

Quote of the day;

“Other people may not have had high expectations for me…but, I had high expectations for myself.” – Shannon Miller

2 comments:

Thomas said...

Why don't you plan the week ahead, like 16 miles on Monday, tempo run on Wednesday, 20 miles on Saturday, and so on? That way you know well ahead what mileage you will achieve, and thoughts like "Hopefully I can motivate myself to a 20 mile run" should not come into play.

Chad said...

Oh, because if it's "on paper" then it will happen for sure.

To be honest, if I had 20 written down on paper last Saturday, it wouldn't have made a difference. I'd just have a paper trail of an unobtained goal.