REPEATING THE SAME THING

Yesterday I decided to sleep in, so last night I ran an easy 8 miles on the treadmill. I knew more snow was expected over night, so I was “forced” to get up early and beat the traffic. Since I had a stronger aerobic run planned, I decided to just run on the treadmill at work. I woke up to 4 more inches of snow with another 2-4 inches expected before noon. Getting to work took about 10 minutes more than normal. That’s not bad, considering when I turned on the TV, I saw how backed up the roads that I was just on were. My legs were a little tried from Tuesday’s hills, but I still managed 11 miles. I spent the first 6 miles dropping from 9:00 to 7:00 pace and the next 4 miles dropping to 6:30 pace before cooling down for a mile.

There was a comment on Mike’s blog the other day about marathon pace never feeling easy until race day. That’s how I feel. And it’s why I get frustrated when I see someone running 7:30 pace everyday, but running their marathon at 8:00 pace. Something seems out of whack there. Anyway, the 4 miles of 6:30 to 7:00 pace weren’t too bad today. I definitely feel better when I gradually ease into the pace. Then again, I only ran 4 miles near MP, not 8 or 9 like I had been running on Thursdays.

I’ve kind of gotten away from writing about the mental aspects of running. There’s only so much you can write about relaxation exercises. After relaxation, the next step is adding visualization. With a race coming up on Sunday, I’ve been trying to visualize that. The only problem is that relaxing usually puts me to sleep. I tend to do a better job of visualizing while I’m actually out running. I have come up with a couple of more affirmations for the race;

“I’m in a position to strike and get what I like.”
“Expect success, I’m one of the best.”
“Centered and strong, I run right along.”

I particularly like the first one since I tend to run my best when I go out controlled and track people down in the second half. An out-and-back course, like the one on Sunday, is perfect for this strategy.

If you enjoy reading articles on “every day” runners, here’s a good one on a local studette, Kelly Keeler. If only we all could improve so rapidly.

Speaking of Grandma’s marathon, I have a spare bedroom in the apartment I’m staying at on the College of St. Scholastica. So if anyone needs a room or knows of someone that needs a room, let me know.

Quote of the day:
“I also enjoy satirizing the folks that spend money or throw money at running, thinking that the good old American way of paying for things will make you better at a sport that just requires repeating the same thing over and over again.” Duncan Larkin