Running...A team sport? Absolutely!

I have often thought of running as a sort of lonely sport. It was always something I pretty much did on my own and occasionally ran with someone else. However, this week I have done 3 of my week day runs with groups. Tuesday I went to Magees at 5:30 am to find about 15-20 runners. I ran with a group of 6 (I think, I may have left someone out), Ernie, Sarah, Kristin, Hayley, Tracy, and Lynn. All of which are frequent Todds runners. I was thinking that Gary and I were nuts to drive all the way out there at 5am to run 6 or 7 or 8 miles in the cold. However when I got there and saw all the people I couldn't decide if I was more normal than I had originally thought, or that everyone else is just as nuts. Either way I wasn't alone!

Wednesday at 6 in the morning I ran with Hayley, Ernie, Sarah, and Kelty (my dog). We had a good 6.25 mile run. The only bad thing was that Kelty is too competitive to let anyone run ahead of her so I had to keep up with Haley who is awesome on hills. I felt pretty strong throught the whole run, and was pretty energized all day.

This morning I ran with Ernie, Sarah, and Jill, and Kelty. We did 5 loops at Kirklevington, and did some stride work. I love the motivation that I see in everyone in the group. They help me to remember what it is about running that I love. Its not about time, and its not about winning, or competition. When I run by myself I often think about these things (well maybe not winning). As I mentioned in my last blog I am an avid worrier about my performance. It is completely different when I am running with the group. I am just enjoying the company, and the sport.

When I was training for the Tecumseh Trail Marathon Gary was my training partner. Well, Gary and Kelty of course. He was so great about being supportive and encouraging, and attentive. Even when I was crabby and hurting. I knew for this marathon he would be training to run a sub 3 hour marathon so I would lose my training partner. I was pretty sad because I knew I would be doing many of my runs alone, except for Todd's Road Saturdays. However, now I feel like I have the best of both worlds. I have the group to run with almost every day of the week, and I still even get Gary once a week if I am lucky. I enjoy hearing about Gary's running group, and I hope he enjoys hearing about mine because I talk about them all the time. Sometimes I do wish I could be as quick as the women Gary runs with, but I know that is just my own jealousy. Some day maybe our two groups will merge! As for now I am completely enjoying the company of some great runners and wonderful people.

I believe I have solved my "training of the mind" theory. I just need to run with people more than I run by myself. I am blessed that this has been so easy for me to do lately. These people are my motivation and my inspiration. They understand me and share in my excitement of running. What more could a lonely runner ask for?

It's all in my head

I went out to Todd's Road Saturday and I was very excited to show off my Valentine's Day present from Gary, a blinking arm band that also has a zipper pocket! I love it. However it was completely unnecessary because of the blinding white snow on the ground. Wednesday I did ran twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. Both times I wore shorts since it was near 60 degrees. Saturday morning was a different story. I was glad to have a group to be running with.

The group I run planned on doing anywhere between 9 and 16. I wanted to do about 10, and I somehow started out in the front of the pack with the quick ones, Jason and Kristen. We immediately broke away from the rest of the group and I kept looking back thinking, maybe I should run with the rest of them. Then I got to talking and before I realized it the rest of the group was almost out of eyesight. We were doing an out and back so I figured if they ran me into the ground I could always wait at the halfway and run back with the rest of them. As we kept running I was hurting a bit because it was quicker than my normal pace, but I still felt strong. I tried to tell myself that it was all in my head, and that I am easily keeping up.

We got to the point where we turn around and I decided that I was tired, but I could finish the second half with them. We turned around to find ourselves running into a very strong head wind with the snow pelting our frozen faces. It was pretty miserable. Every time we turned a corner and thought we were out of the wind it would seem to follow us. The whole way back the snow beat at our faces. Jason was wearing an ear warmer and his hair and eyebrows collected a white frosty coat of frozen snow. My eyelashes collected so much snow that by the time we got to the clubhouse my lower lashes and upper lashes were frozen together by a coat of ice. I had to squint through it to see the road. I was very glad to be back to the clubhouse to coffee and a doughnut.

During my run and afterwards I got to thinking about how much my mind plays into my performance. I have always been a head case when it comes to sports. Worrying, overanalyzing, planning, and evaluating. I started thinking that my mind might be my limiting factor. Everything I have studied in school has taught me about VO2 max, and anaerobic threshold, and all the physiological factors that play into performance. I am not saying that these do not apply to me, but I think that athletes have to take into consideration the power of the mind.

I ran planned on running 10 yesterday. I told myself that I was going to take it easy since the run with Jason and Kristen was pretty intese the day before. However, I started running, and was able to keep a pretty quick pace throughout. I was surprised to get to mile 8 to see that I still had quite a bit of time to finish the last 2 miles, so I ended up running more than I expected, and my spilts were faster than they had ever been when training for the Tecumseh. It felt so good to have run so strong on both Saturday and Sunday. I really believe that the run on Saturday gave me the confidence to run well on Sunday. I tend to obsess about my pace, and get really down on myself when I am not running as fast as I would like to be. When these negative thoughts creep into my head the downward spiral begins. I am so slow...How come I never get any faster?...I am barely keeping up with this group...I can't breathe!...I can't do it... Then I start to think about how my body is feeling, how much my legs hurt, how hard I am breathing. I start focusing on all of the negative things until I have reduced myself into a worthless, slower than sludge, pained runner.

The opposite occurs when I feel like I am running at a quick pace. I feel on top of the world, like I could run for 3 more hours, and the pain although pretty bad sometimes, is not as severe as when I am put putting along in my "negative" running zone. I know how to train my body to perform better, so now I am going to try to conquer the idea of training my mind.

Owie

Well I finished the first week of training, and it wasn't easy. It consisted of 285 minutes of running which was a big jump from my last few weeks of about 60 minutes per week (due to injury and illness). I was scheduled to do a 2 hour run on Saturday but since I had to work I did my run on Sunday. I mapped out a 6 mile loop, one of which I took the dog. She is a challenge to run with to say the least. But she absolutely loves it and needs good exercise. The first loop was not so bad, pretty slow, but I didn't feel horrible. The second loop, after I dropped the dog off, got very cold, windy, and snowy. It was downright miserable for several mintues at a time when I could barely open my eyes. Once the snow stopped the pain started. Foot pain, left hamstring pain. My body was not appreciating my choice to run 12 miles. Today is a day off, but had I done the run on Saturday I would have had 2 days of recovery which would have been ideal. Hopefully I will feel much better tomorrow.

Despite my pain it feels really good to be on a training plan again. I am anxious to do another race soon. The next one scheduled is the Rodes 10k in Louisville in March, then the Papa John's 10 miler also in Louisville in April, and then the marathon 2 weeks later. I have also been thinking about running the Sugar and Spice Ultra (32miles) in Cave Run in June. We'll see how the body feels after the marathon. As for now I am as excited as ever!

Running in the Rain

I finally went out to Todd's Road on Saturday morning. I had been to the doctor the day before to get my throat checked out because my tonsils are being taken over by some gross white spots. My throat does not hurt, and I do not feel sick despite the doctor telling me she thinks I have strep. I was pretty bummed until I asked her if she thought I could run, and she gave me the OK as long as I didn't feel sick.

Friday night I told myself and Gary that if it were really cold and raining I should probably not go. I woke up Saturday morning and still felt fine so I got dressed and went outside to check the weather and start my car. It was barely a mist outside and not very cold so I decided to go. When I got there it started raining a little harder and by the time we were running it was really very windy and raining harder. I decided to only do 6 since I hadn't run been running at all. The rest of the group except for the one guy who ran back with me was doing 14. It was a much less than ideal day to run 14 miles and they have my utmost respect. By the time I got back to the clubhouse my shoes and socks were soaking wet and I was frozen. Probably not the smartest thing for a "sick" girl to do, but I still feel fine this morning, so maybe it wasn't that stupid.