Strong in Mind You Must BE......

That's my mantra for today, a quote from the amazing Jedi Master Yoda. Strong in the mind.......It means so many different things. Today it meant you have to will yourself to get out of bed, even though your body is tired and telling you otherwise. Thank goodness I had that guilt factor of a training partner out there going to meet you for that 5am run. I had already screwed up once this week, and missed him on Monday, there was no way I could do that to him on Friday. I made the commitment, I have to mentally stay strong and get out there.

Today my legs just weren't ready for the days run. They felt heavy, and didn't want to go. The rest of my body....Didn't really care either way. I just knew that I set a goal, I MUST do my best to accomplish it. This is hard week #2 out of three. The remainder of the weekend and next week is going to be an absolute mental battle. I don't have a scheduled day off until next Friday. I may swap Wednesday for Friday, just because my legs will have gone 8 days in a row without a break at that point, making them go 10 could just be insanity. And I don't intend on messing up a speed workout session on Tuesday by taking that day off. Those are way too valuable. Anyways.....back to today's run. On the schedule I had just a 5 milers planned. The way I felt this morning, I really didn't want to go 5 feet. But, it was a nice bright morning with the full moon out, pretty much rendered my headlight useless. Not far from home, met up with Paul, and we started our planned run. Those thoughts of cutting it short kept dancing through my head. See how you feel at Safeway. Those inner daemons were playing havoc on me. We finally got to Safeway, and I absolutely didn't feel strong at all. But, I cussed myself out a bit for being a wuss, and that I could make it to the next street turn in. In between those two points, I started doing math in my head. When I started out the door today, I had a little over 18 miles officially in the books. So, to get to 45, it became apparent that I MUST get 5 miles in today. I really had to play those mind games to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. We got to the second shortening point, and I put the strength of my mind to keep on going. Passing that spot, there was no more shortening spot along the route. To get home, you have to get through it, and suck it up soldier! And suck it up I did. We made our final turn into the Sunflower retirement community, and it was the last homestretch to get back on home. In all, I ended up with 5.25 miles. Even better, the average split times were ALL UNDER 9 mins. For how I felt, I didn't think that was possible. I would have sworn we were running a 9:30 pace. Not so much...They were all around 8:40.


So, Jedi Master Yoda, you are correct, "Strong In Mind You Must BE!"

Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

A special Weekend

The first weekend in November will always be a special time for me. Last year, I had the opportunity to go to New York City for the first time ever, and participate in the ING New York City Marathon with the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It was an incredibly special time for me, in what was an incredibly difficult year. See, back in February not only did my wifes grandmother pass away, but a good friend of mine was diagnosed with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. It was so far progressed, that it had spread through his lyph nodes and had reacehd his lungs and liver. At this point we had thought he had gotten a handle on it. It wasn't progressing, and when we went to dinner with them, he looked really good. From the outside you would never know that his body was being ravaged by this aweful disease. It wasn't long after I came back from NYC that his health took the ultimate turn for the worse. So this weekend, I decided both my runs would be with my NYC LIVESTRONG jersey that I ran in NYC with.

Saturday started off with a 3x2mile interval set followed up with a 5x1min. This was a crucial marathon paced workout, plus I could use it as a guage to see where my fitness has progressed over the past couple of months. At the start, my target splits were set at an 8:05 min/mile pace for 16:10 per set. I was paired off with a new face in the group, which turned out to be kind of a mistake....for him. We took off with the slower paces first, and I was the third group out of the gates. And I took off fast.....I had taken Friday off, and my legs felt GREAT! Every couple of minutes I would look down at my watch to see where my average pace was at that moment, adn I was shocked to see it around low sevens. So, I decided to throttle back a bit because I knew it was a long workout. I eventually settled into a 7:30 pace. MUCH FASTER then what mamma Michele had wanted me to run. When I got to the 2 mile marker, I had finished my split at 14:58, but I felt great. So set 2 I kept up the same pace, and actually came in a few seconds faster at 14:55. This is a SIGNIFICANT milestone because I just ran 4 miles then under 30 minutes. To be exact, 7 sencods to space. That's HUGE! That gets me ever so close to reaching my goal of getting to that elusive Walgreens corner. That's where I want to be in 30 minutes SOOOOOOOOO bad. And if I were to run another 7 seconds, that puts me about 15-20 seconds short. VERY VERY VERY doable by my January timeframe when I want to run my marathon. My thirs set kicked off and I still sayed amazingly consistent. The end of the thirs set clocked in at 15:02. Only a 7 second slowdown form the previous set. And I finished roughly a minute off of two runners that I have never been able to keep pace with. That's the making of that first stepping stone that I wanted to hit, and it's only th ebeginning of NOVEMBER! With the 5 times a minute at the end, it left me with about a mile to jog back to the start, and a full 8 mile morning, hence the reason I took off Friday.

So that left me with a 14 mile run through te neighborhood to finish out a great weekend. The rest of the group was going to go run with another running group in Tucson, so I did this one SOLO. Nothing wrong with that. So I put on the headphones and took off at a nice easy 9:30 pace. I knew that I would eventually turn up the screws towards the end when my legs were tired, it's a new peice to my training puzzle. I'm working on the negative split. Trying to keep yourself in check at the start and not go wild by blowing all of your energy too early. And it's bene working out beautifully. By the time I got to the 4 mile mark, I had already ratched the pace down to a nice 9:15, and I was GOING UPHILL! I added onto last weeks route a new segment of road that JUST reopened yesterday. And man...that pavement is NICE! Not once did I EVER want to stop. I just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Mentally, I was getting tired, but I kept clicking off the miles, one after another. Eventually I worked my pace into the 8:45 zone. PERFECT for the long run SUNDAYS! That's where I want to be. Did I mention that I kept it up as I went through the run. 7, 8, 9, then 10.....They just kept clicking off. By 12 I could tell my legs were getting tired. I told myself...lets' just get to 13. I got to 13 and headed up a tough hill....Part way up the hill, the mile marker clicked off.....and by the time I got to the top, it was time for the nice stroll on back home......I ended up having to do a little bit in my neioghborhood, but I just wanted to get on home.......so, tired legs and all, I managed to finish up with a nice little 8:35 pace.. :) And why was I wanting to get home so bad....So I could get on te computer and watch the NYC Marathon. Trust me....I've really been down a bit becaeu I just wanted to be there with all of the excitement. I'm not ready to do a full yet...Mentally or physically. I haven't done all of the hard work yet. Last year I did enaough to get through, but the business of owning a business played a roll in that. This year I don't have that, and I'm making strides I never thought I could have made. And what a race it was. It was amazing to see Paula Radcliff run the race of her life, winning NYC not only back to back, but adding her name to a short list of people who have rwon the race three times. And what a race the mens marathon turned out to be. Gomes Dosantos who led most of the race, recovered from his midrace bonk to blow my the leader and win the race in the final mile through Central Park. Just makes me a little more dissapointed that I wasn't there to see it in person. I'm going to have to circle it on my calendar for next year to either run it, or at least be there. And finally, congratulations to American Kara Goucher on mer marathon debut by getting 3rd place overall in what I think ended up in a new record for an American Womans debut. GREAT RACE!!!

So, when the alarm

That Familiar Dead Leg Feeling

So today, as expected, my legs were out of any go go go.....Yesterdays workout was so good, that I was pretty much depleted. But, I still managed to get out of the door for my early morning run, although, the late start dictated that I cut it shorter then usual. Either way, I still managed to get in just over 30 mins of quality running in, and even though my legs didn't feel like they were moving properly, I still managed to end up with a 8:45 pace. Take the 'little' victories when you can, and I can use that term incredibly loosely.

My route planned was the original 5.5 mile loop that I run with Paul. And since his wife was re-scheduled to have their baby this morning, he wasn't going to be able to make it. Go figya! So, out the door I headed at 5:15ish and headed on the same route. I did manage to still see Dave and Todd out for their run as they both get ready for the California International marathon coming up this December. They are at that final stage where the LONG LONG LONG runs come in. I think they still have a couple more 22 milers in store for their legs, and I know they've been regularly doing 100+ mile weeks. That's actually where I would love to be someday. It's just going to take time and a nice slow progression to get there. My upcoming weeks are looking something like this starting with this week:

10/27: 31
11/3: 38 ( 3 back from the high point)
11/10: 45
11/17: 50
11/24: 40 ( 2 plus my start of the last period)
12/1: 45
12/8: 50
12/15: 55
12/22: 45 (Drop)
12/29: 50
1/5: 60
Taper
Marathon Day: 1/18

I think this scedule is VERY doable. In fact, I think that the mileage may be a little low in some cases, as my long runs are going to be getting up to the 22 mile point as well. Heck, I may even add in some two-a-days in there.

So, until after tomorrows workout of 1/2/3s, train hard and LIVESTRONG!!

41!

And who said 40 was a barrier?!?!?!?!?! If anything it was all mental, because this week I CRUSHED through that wall with an explosion! Saturday I set out on a session that was a 1 mile warm up, 3 sets of 5mins 10K pace, 5 mins HM pace and finished with a nice easy 1 mile cool down jog. Before the run, I had setup "goal" paces in my Garmin 305, and hoped to keep up the pace. I set up 7:30-7:45 for the 10K pace, and 7:45-8:15 for the HM pace. Needless to day, I BLEW those right out of the water. That added into the annoyance factor of the Garmin. If your going to fast, it incessantly beeps at you to tell you to slow down.....But my body was having none of that. And I knew it was going to be a fast day. I did my warm up jog at an 8:30 pace. But I felt good, and I wanted to get a QUALITY speed work session in, because I knew my group was running hard in the Oracle 10K, and the thought of them getting one on me, made me push even harder, especially towards the end of the run when it became more difficult to push that final pace. But the key was, I DID IT! And I did it so much, that by the end of my 1 mile cool down run, I was at the turnaround point of what I like to call "extra" credit time on the morning run with Paul. Adding in that little extra credit session allowed me to have a nice half mile jog back home afterwords. And the nice thing, another 6.5 miles in the book. That took me to 29.5 by the end of Saturday!

So starting Sunday, I was ready to run. I woke up BEFORE my alarm clock for the first time in a very long time. I was really looking forward to the solitude of a Sunday outing. I am becoming addicted to my Sunday runs. Knowing that 40 was well in reach, I decided to modify my long run from last week a bit, and add in a little challenge of going to the TOP of Wade road, instead of turning 1/4 of the way, and heading through Continental Reserve. Going to the top meant heading up one of the toughest hills in the area. It's STEEP! It looks like a wall as you approach it, but I have run up it many times before, and to put it mildly, we know each other pretty well. Once I got to the top, I could see that stop sign which has always signified the downhill is here! But I decided to modify the route a bit more, and take the HARD way out. Instead of making the usual left had turn, I turned right, and took the roller coaster adventure. Straight down, the straight back up. So much so, that you can see the marks on the road where cars bottom out as they scrape the pavement. Once the rollers are over, it's a nice easy downhill that ends up at a usual point and I'm back in Continental Reserve. In all, it added an nice and challenging two miles to the journey. 2 miles where I easily maintained a 9:15 pace. I continued on and continued clipping off the miles: 6, 7, then 8! In my head I kept doing a little mental countdown. I get to 11, I've got 40 in the books! And so my mental focused turned to Pat Tillman. The great number 40 that played for the Arizona Cardinals, and left his lucrative NFL contract to go fight for his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was accidentally killed by friendly fire in an amazingly tragic accident of miscommunication. I kept saying to myself, what would Pat do! And from there, I kept increasing the pace.....9:00, 8:55, and then finally 8:40....And the miles kept clicking off at 9, 10, and finally I was on that home stretch towards 11. I made the right turn through the retirement community of Sunflower, and I was headed for home, and my legs just kept getting stronger and stronger. When finally my watch went off to signify the end of mile 11.

At this point I stopped and took a little break. I wasn't home, but I knew that I had completed something that I figured mentally would have broken me. But my mind stayed strong, and I only got stronger as I finished! I took the moment to enjoy the victory, polish off that last bit of water I had, and get back running and jog it back in, nice and easy, with a HUGE smile on my face. That was the best half mile I think I've ever run. I was pumped for the entire DAY. Even a Cardinals loss in Carolina couldn't take that grin off my face! I was so pumped up!

Needless to say, my legs earned their rest week. Today was a complete day of rest. No running. I got to sleep in until 6am, and give the motor the day off. I plan on cutting back the miles to about 30 this week. 2 FULL days off, today and Friday. But the workouts are going to target speed. Short, but fast! I'll get in at least 2 six and a half milers with Paul, a group workout....And then Saturday is a TIME TRIAL! It's that 30 minute tempo that I use to gauge my success. 3.9 miles is the distance to beat. I want to go out and absolutely CRUSH it!

Until tomorrow, LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!

The Ever Elusive Negative Split

So today's run was a little hard to get going on. My mind played that little you're tired change the alarm to sleep in trick. I battled back and forth between snooze hits to dig deep into the bowls of every bit of energy I had left in me to roll myself out of bed. Thankfully my morning buddy (my 13 year old Beagle Bailey) was there to provide a little NUDGE. We have a morning routine, that starts with my alarm clock. by the time the snooze has been hit a couple of times, he's awake enough to want his treat, and go outside. Finally, by 4:30 I was alert enough to get out of the bed, gather my running gear, and get the process rolling.

I started out today's run, very very slow....We're talking 10 minute mile range. My legs were feeling the effects of yesterdays 5:51 and 6:30 madness. There, turning over, but just not that ooomph that make you feel like a track star. Every night I use the Active Recovery feature of my Compex EMS, and that usually works out all the lactic acid but you still have those low energy days. The good thing was there was no soreness whatsoever. Anyways, I made it out the door and headed for the corner where I usually meet Paul....This morning, he wasn't there...I was wondering a couple of things...1) His wife went into Labor. 2) He felt like I did, but didn't conquer the morning deamons. :) Turns out neither happened, he just got a little bit of a later start on the warmup jog he does before hand. And so, we set off on our 5.7 mile trek through Continental Ranch. The further we got, the better my legs started feeling, and the faster Paul kept upping the tempo. He had a goal that he wanted to averge less then 8:59 for the whole run. The next thing I know, we had the pace cranked down to 8:30s....then 8:20s....In fact, our fastest mile was 5-6 (we did the extra credit) at 8:23! Did I mention there's a pretty nice hill on that segment.

So, even after all the morning arguments with myself, I STILL managed to get in a great workout, and EXCORSIZED those deamons yet again. So far on the workout Dockett, I've got 23 miles in the books. That's about 6 more then I had last week at this time, so I'm well ahead of schedule. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to limit myself to 5-7 miles. Last week I did almost 9, but I've got 3 straight in the books, and will have 5 by the end of Sunday. The great thing about this weekends runs is that the temperatures are cooperating so munch that not only can I get some extra sleep in, I can run at 8ish and not get blown away by the heat. That's going to be a HUGE PLUS.

Well, the tomorrows going to be onstep closer to 40, and my present to my legs for getting me there will be the drop back in mileage next week!!! HUA! Until then and probably a blog about the weekend, LIVESTRONG and train hard!