So Far, It's All Mental

Does that mean I'm mental?

Funny thing happened to me yesterday at the park (when I was running, of course). Sounds like a lead in to a bad joke...

I have come to believe, for the most part, marathon training is mental training. At the two mile mark, of my six mile run, I was having all kinds of crazy thoughts: stop here and finish the run at home on the treadmill (yeah, right!), stop here and run the rest later in the evening (even less likely to happen than the treadmill), take this work out as a "bye" after all this is your third day straight running maybe your body needs the rest (if you've read my earlier posts you'll see that I put off my Thursday run until Friday (for no good reason) and I have been staying up too late and not getting enough rest (for no good reason)).

You'll be happy to hear the the "real" me stood up to the "current" me, and I completed my planned run. Yes, it wasn't at the speed of light, but I finished! What got me through? I pretty much figured that the first week of training is the lightest of the schedule and if I wimped out now I might as well pack it all in -- which I am not prepared to do because I am fully committed to running the Detroit Marathon on Sunday, October 19, 2008.

The funny thing is that the run WAS possible. It wasn't fatal. It didn't hurt me. In fact, it has given me confidence to continue and the insight to know that the "real" me is still here, maybe lurking below the surface, and able to step up when necessary.

I don't have a route to share because I forgot to turn on my route tracker on my GPS. Grrrrr! I did use the trip computer, but it doesn't upload to my PC or MapMyRun.com. I'll have to be more careful tomorrow.

Ice Baths: a little tip from your pal, Kamboja : )

After my runs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I took 15 - 20 minute ice baths. My old adventure racing buddy introduced me to this concept after we did long runs (11 milers) and long training days (how long was that mountain bike ride to Stoney and back??). We generally stood in his driveway running the garden hose over our legs. I've improved the process: I fill the tub and sit and read. The initial shock isn't very fun, but in less than a minute it feels wonderful. Shifting the water around gets your attention, but for about 4 hours after the soak your legs feel GREAT. I even took an extra soak before bed on Sunday because I could feel my legs tightening again. Today (Monday) my legs feel about 95%. Amazing when you consider how much I ran the previous 3 days. I also didn't need to take any Alleve.

I've got 4 miles to do tomorrow -- early -- because it is supposed to be hot and humid in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon, so on that note, I'm wrapping up this humble post.

Night!