Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Mind Games


 I took yesterday completely off so that I could completely recover from all my soreness.  I can't believe what I can get done around the house when I don't have to run!  Seriously, I didn't think it took that much time, but I sure got a ton done yesterday!  It feels kinda good to be caught up on a few things that have been weighing on my mind so maybe that's why I had a good run today.  Cause when I looked at the schedule I was definitely NOT excited. 
 This is the week that I start shifting things around because of the craziness that I decided to do.  I had a friend talk me into running a marathon with her as my 20 mile training run.  Now, I really am going to run it as a training run and not a race, but it did require some shifting in my schedule so that I could do it, taper slightly for it, and recover for the next marathon four weeks from the first one.  When I say it out loud or see it on paper it makes me think I'm an idiot!  I know some people run a marathon a week all year long or even crazier things, but they're not me and for me, this is crazy!  I've decided that it is going to be the best training run ever.  I won't have to carry water with me, there will be thousands of other runners, there will be cheering crowds, and at the end, I'll get a t-shirt and a medal for my training run.  Can it get much better than that? 
 So it required me to do mile speed workouts again this week instead of getting a break in between.  DREAD!  It's always amazing how if I play mind games how much faster it goes.  So here was the game today.  First lap: turn down music and concentrate on form, don't swing my arms too much, be smooth, don't pound on the treadmill, stay tall and look forward.  Second lap, turn up music and try to keep good form.  Third, turn down music and concentrate on form again.  Fourth, turn it back up and make it through the last bit.  I did 3 repeats with a 400 meter recovery in between.  Ended up being a little over 5 miles.  It really went by fast today and wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Mile repeats used to be the worst thing, besides tempo workouts, and who am I to lie, they still are, but I'm learning ways to get through them.  Now if I can just apply it in a race situation!
Afterwards I did weight training for my upper body and some more plyometrics for the lower half.  Hope my body gets used to those!
Since I'm eating pretty much the same thing before and after my workouts, I decided I'll only record if it's different.  

4 comments:

Jodi said...

SO what's so important about good form? No that's not an April Fool's joke either! I guess it helps with the breathing etc, but what else? See what a rookie I am???

Jodi said...

Oh and I didn't run yesterday either...but didn't seem to get diddly squat done!!!!

Anonymous said...

ah track workouts... the work out i love to hate... It feels SOOOO good when it's over..

running like Horseback riding... totally addictive ... happy trails

gp in montana
keep your feet on the ground but keep reachin' for the stars.

Jen said...

you know what a dork I am, Jodi. I read these articles and then try them out for a while. I read one on form and decided that I waste energy going up and down instead of forward so I'm trying to fix that and I tend to swing my arms side to side and then tense up at the end of a long run, so I'm trying to relax my arms more. There you go, more than you ever wanted to know. Oh, and yeah, I want to breathe easier too. And I got that quilt done for Mrs. Reeder! Yeah!