Mental Running Block – Over
You can have moments in your running life that you know stand out. It may be your first race, first medal, first win or many other things. In training you try and find those moments as they tend to get you over the various walls as you run.
I went into a triathlon funk after my biggest athletic achievement – the 70.3. I wasn’t dead physically, but mentally the race took a lot out of me. I have no idea why this all happened but I just lost my desire to race. It came back a few times but then winter was upon us and that isn’t the greatest time to train.
I picked a few races at the beginning of the year and decided to skip Triathlons this year and focus on getting faster. The only problem was that this funk I was in led me down a bad healthy lifestyle. I ate way too much and maybe had a few too many beers. All of a sudden I was up 25 pounds. Shoot all that work down the drain.
I decided to run the inaugural Worcester Half-Marathon and Bay State Marathon. My two “A” races. I wanted to run really well and try and hit 1:40 ish. Only problem….that stupid brain of mine.
I just didn’t get motivated enough to race. I ran a great 10k in April and actually placed 3rd in my age group. That should have kicked my brain into gear. Right ? Nope I still didn’t have the motivation to get going and seriously train.
They a bit of a wake up call happened in the early part of May. Not ready to discuss but it opened my eyes to my training and that I really needed to focus on getting back into shape and running fast.
I ran the Half-Marathon and did ok (race report soon). I also ran the Patriots Place 10k (finishing in Gillete Stadium and race report coming soon). I did well in both races and met some basic time goals. I could have run faster but I am happy with my results. The Half Marathon I was too conservative at the beginning and the Patriots Place I was too aggressive.
So what this all means and why am I suddenly blogging again.
Today I finally got my Mojo back.
Yesterday I ran a 10k in just under 50 minutes. That was a huge goal. I started out pretty conservative but at half-way (and really just running really easy) I realized that I could push it. I did. My last 1.5 miles I was in the high 6:50 min per mile. My new music playlist was playing all my heart thumping songs and I ended with the one song that I call my Anthem.
Today I woke up and felt alright. Last night I didn’t eat a healthy dinner and really didn’t hydrate enough yesterday so I was skeptical on my results today. The first mile was nice and easy and I watched my watch. Not bad.
I hit the three mile mark strong. Felt good and was hitting what I sort of expected time wise. By mile 5 I was feeling really good, but then I felt the twinge in my hamstring. Crap. I didn’t want to feel that. I continued but realized that I might have to cut the run short. Today my music was well in sync with my running and it seemed every song kept me going and going. I’m happy that I revamped my running playlist because it certainly helped me today.
I planned on running between 11-13 miles and by the time I hit 7 miles I was feeling awesome. Running strong up the hills and even better on the flats. I turned around and headed home. Then something happened.
The music took over and those stupid voices that always wants you to quit went black (not that I had them much today as I was so focused). I started to pick it up and felt stronger as the miles kept piling up. I hit 8 miles and there was a runner ahead of me. I knew that if I made the pass it was going to turn into a race.
I passed the runner and she didn’t like it and we got a laugh but I was picking up speed. My legs felt great but I had to be careful as I could feel the twinge, but I kept going faster and faster. A huge hill and no problems, I blazed up it.
I turned the corner with about 2 miles to go and I just kept getting faster. The last 6 miles was strong than the first 6 miles. My last mile was my fastest of the day.
| Time: | 02:19:01 |
| Distance: | 15.01 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 573 ft |
| Calories: | 2,185 C |
|
Split
|
Hour:Minute:SecondTime
|
MilesDistance
|
Minutes per MileAvg Pace
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | 02:19:01 | 15.01 | 09:15 |
| 1 | 00:09:09 | 1.00 | 09:09 |
| 2 | 00:09:20 | 1.00 | 09:20 |
| 3 | 00:09:32 | 1.00 | 09:32 |
| 4 | 00:09:27 | 1.00 | 09:27 |
| 5 | 00:09:32 | 1.00 | 09:32 |
| 6 | 00:09:31 | 1.00 | 09:31 |
| 7 | 00:09:37 | 1.00 | 09:38 |
| 8 | 00:09:40 | 1.00 | 09:40 |
| 9 | 00:09:28 | 1.00 | 09:28 |
| 10 | 00:09:18 | 1.00 | 09:18 |
| 11 | 00:08:46 | 1.00 | 08:46 |
| 12 | 00:09:06 | 1.00 | 09:06 |
| 13 | 00:08:52 | 1.00 | 08:52 |
| 14 | 00:08:53 | 1.00 | 08:53 |
| 15 | 00:08:40 | 1.00 | 08:40 |
| 16 | 00:00:03 | 0.01 | 09:33 |
Fantastic run. I now am down to my racing weight from last year and I know that I’m about 10 pounds from marathon racing weight and about another 10 pounds for my ultimate goal of becoming an Ultra Runner.
This will be my journey for the next year. 50k, 70.3 tri, 50mile race.
Let It Rock
