Scenes from Thursday's warm up....
A bed and breakfast...
In the running world, there are tempo runs (25 - 30" hard, but not quite race pace), intervals (repeats of set fast short distances -- usually up to a mile -- with a jogging or rest break between intervals), Fartleks (I haven't tried those yet), etc.
On Thursday night I waited till 9 p.m. to go for a run. It was still 88 degrees! I ran up the street (literally--as this photo shows), and on to the track. I was exhauseted before I ever made it to the track, and that was just supposed to be my warmup.
On Thursday night I waited till 9 p.m. to go for a run. It was still 88 degrees! I ran up the street (literally--as this photo shows), and on to the track. I was exhauseted before I ever made it to the track, and that was just supposed to be my warmup.
Let me back up a moment. When I first moved here to Staunton I tried to maintain my Fingerlakes (New York) training pace and injured my Achilles. Afterward I read that just running hills counts as a hard training run, and one should limit hard runs to 2 or three a week. So I set up a training schedule far below what I had been working on in New York, starting with just 4-6 miles per week -- all of it on hills, as that's all I saw. Then somebody told me about the track at the college, which is level on half and only slightly inclining on the other half.
So last Thursday my goal was a 30 minute tempo run on the track. Mile one was hard but not too bad. Nonetheless I had to stop for a drink (even though I had drunk two bottles of water before leaving home). I then started my second mile. My legs burned. On laps two and three I took a 50 yard walk break. So much for my tempo run goal. I thought about making it an interval run, but my times were too inconsistent and I was too exhausted to run hard enough for intervals.
At the end of the second mile, I finished my water bottle, determined not to let the three miles elude me. Slowly, but doggedly I kept going. I tried praying for others, so I'd think less about me. I tried praising; that had worked the other day. Finally I reverted to yelling at me, "Nete, don't give up. Push. You've run farther than this before. It's only another ten minutes."
And then it hit me....though not my original intent, I had just invented a new type of training run.
So last Thursday my goal was a 30 minute tempo run on the track. Mile one was hard but not too bad. Nonetheless I had to stop for a drink (even though I had drunk two bottles of water before leaving home). I then started my second mile. My legs burned. On laps two and three I took a 50 yard walk break. So much for my tempo run goal. I thought about making it an interval run, but my times were too inconsistent and I was too exhausted to run hard enough for intervals.
At the end of the second mile, I finished my water bottle, determined not to let the three miles elude me. Slowly, but doggedly I kept going. I tried praying for others, so I'd think less about me. I tried praising; that had worked the other day. Finally I reverted to yelling at me, "Nete, don't give up. Push. You've run farther than this before. It's only another ten minutes."
And then it hit me....though not my original intent, I had just invented a new type of training run.
"A Mind Over Matter Run"
Victory Shot...and yes it was dark when I finished. 
3 comments:
It's so nice for me to have found this blog of yours, it's so interesting. I sure hope and wish that you take courage enough to pay me a visit in my PALAVROSSAVRVS REX!, and plus get some surprise. My blog is also so cool!
Feel free off course to comment as you wish and remember: don't take it wrong, don't think that this visitation I make is a matter of more audiences for my own blogg. No. It's a matter of making universal, realy universal, all this question of bloggs, all the essential causes that bring us all together.
I think it's to UNITE MANKIND that we became bloggers! Don't see language as an obstacle but as a challenge and think for a minute if I and the rest of the world are not expecting something like a broad cumplicity. Remenber that pictures talk also. Open your heart and come along!!!!!
I am thrilled to have visited your blog. And thank you for visiting and enjoying mine...I didn't know how to leave a comment on your blog, so I am leaving it here. I added your blog to my "favorites," as I'd like to visit it again.
Wow!! I like that moniker "mind over matter run". I've had plenty of those days in the past year. Prayer does help on those days for me as well ;-)
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