"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired." - George S. Patton

Thursday, August 26, 2010

My First Run After My Hiatus

My anxiety was up a little bit for my first run after my two month break from the running. I was afraid I would disappoint myself and be starting at square one; two blocks of running.. ten blocks of walking... two blocks of running.. ten blocks of walking, and so on.

I guess I was suprised. I haven't lost a ton of strength in my body. My muscles still felt strong and half way into the first mile, I felt confident. I remembered how much I missed this freeing feeling. I missed the feeling of being away from everyone, alone with my thoughts, my heart racing, my face burning. After that first mile, however, I remembered how hard I had to work to build up my endurance for the Rock and Roll half-marathon.

At the start of mile two, my body felt strong, but my lungs felt as though they were about to collapse. My chest was burning a little bit and I was breathing like a St.Bernard on a 100 degree day. I stopped to walk.

I had to take a 2 minute walk break and was able to turn around and jog to my car without dying. To me, this was success.

If this was the first time I had trained for a race, I would be worried. But I'm not. I know that the lungs are the first to go, and probably the quickest to recover and get back to normal. It's actually kind of exciting for me to know I have to build my conditioning and endurance back up, because now I wont get bored with just pure awesomeness, if that makes sense.

I crosstrained yesterday, so today will be my second day of one foot in front of the other. I have three miles to run tonight, and I am fairly certain I will be even more determined to finish the three without any breaks.

Until the next blog! Happy Running!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We Will Call This, Chapter Two

The Amica Seattle Half-Marathon. The time has come. When it cools down tonight, my first day back into training will commence with a short 3 mile run.

I haven't run since June 26th. You heard me right. I haven't hit the pavement that I have grown to love so much in two months. I'm not sure why. I have been really busy, but if I am being honest with myself, not too busy to squeeze in a few miles here and there. I guess I just took a break, but I am ready to face my new training schedule head-on.

I'm going to follow Hal Higdon's half-marathon training schedule again. I liked it, it was realistic and it helped me power through the 13.1 at the Rock and Roll half. I am, however, going to focus on really working on the cross and strength training this time around because
A: I want to be faster and
B: I want to have a sexier physique (if you know what I mean)

On another exciting note, I think I have sucked my husband into my little obsession. We went out and bought him some new Asics and he is going to train for the November race as well!

Get ready for a lot more blogging from this lady. Also, wish me luck. I just hope I can still run 3 miles without stopping!