Doing the work

Alarm went off before 6 this morning. Time to put my feet on the floor, get up and do the work. But I knew how bloody hot it was going to be. Today's assignment was a tempo run. Total mileage of 6. Two easy, two harder, two easy. I lay there for 30 minutes, wrestling with the will to part company with the pillow. It didn't help that Joe was not parting company with his own precious pillow. I must have repeated it a half dozen times, "Get up, put your feet on the floor, there is work to be done." At last, I did it. I'd like to say that I won. But that would be silly since it was a battle with myself. How can you say "I" when "I" is on both sides?

Anyways, out into the heat I went around 7. It was already 80 degrees. And the air was heavy. Ugh. Double Ugh. First mile was nasty. I was happy it was supposed to be so slow. Now, here is the good news. I was still supposed to be going slow in the second mile and no matter how hard I tried to keep slow and steady, I was going faster than I wanted. Then it was time to pick it up for miles 3 and 4. I did mile 3 45 seconds faster than target. Nice. Mile 4 was just a bit faster than target. Mile 5 was at the proper easy target. And mile 6 was pretty slow....by then the heat was getting worse.

This program has 3 key runs per week. Track workout with intervals on Tuesdays. Tempo runs on Thursdays and long runs on Saturdays. Cross-training 2 other days a week. Then there is supposed to be strength training twice a week too. All this, and it is for one day. One race. One challenge. One test of strength and endurance and mental fortitude. I keep telling myself that this is manageable. That many of my friends are training for much more grueling challenges. They are training longer. They are training harder. So surely I can manage this.

The mental training is every bit as important as the physical training. And it seems for me that it is just as challenging. I don't know if that is true for everyone. Surely I hope so. I watched a movie tonight and there was a good line in it. "You must choose your thoughts like you choose your clothes." Something like that. I must choose to think that I can do this. I must chooses to think that I will succeed. I must choose to think I am strong enough. I will go to sleep now with that as my mantra and will wake up energized for the swim at Point Lookout in the morning.