I'm really that mental

I took the majority of last week off to recover from some shin splints that I had developed and to get over a nasty little spring head cold that I caught some where.  But Sunday I decided was the day to get back on track.  It was the day I put myself back in the double digit club with a 10K long run.

I had a couple of 9 1/2 K runs under my belt and felt pretty confident that the extra 3 minutes it would take to complete the 10 wouldn't be a problem. 

I headed out the door with great expectations and the first 7K were just what I had pictured.  Me and the road unwinding in front of me.  The sun shining down comfortably, not much humidity and a nice cool breeze. 

I was feeling better than OK.  Then the temperature started to rise and the humidity with it.  After another kilometer or so I started to second guess my decision to go the distance.  That's where I went wrong.  The doubt turned to fear and I slowed to a walk.  Now I finished the distance and turned out exactly 10K.  My time wasn't even that bad with the walking but why did I walk?  Why did I slow just because it was getting a little warmer?  It was because mentally I wasn't ready.  I didn't believe I could do it.

Now that I have gone into the double digits I know that in the back of my mind I will be able to keep going there more and more comfortably.

Yup I might just be that mental.

Catch up time

The last week I've been laid up with a nasty little spring cold that just won't go away.  The week before that I was suffering from the worst case of shin splints that I have ever encountered and had to miss a few scheduled runs in order to let everything heal up.  So my total mileage seems to have gone down but not from a lack of interest for a change.

I've been keeping my eye on the Krista Duchene story.  For those of you that don't know her she and fellow Canadian Lanni Marchant competed in Rotterdam and made the IOC qualifying time by 7 minutes.  However, the Canadian selection committee has set a time even faster than that.  They missed by 2 minutes.  Instead of allowing them to compete we are not sending a single female marathoner.

I personally think that it would do great things to allow these women to run. Canada hasn't sent anyone to the Olympic marathon since 1996.  If we want to create some sort of excitement for the future we need to start sending the best we have even if they don't think the can medal.  People break legs and people preform above themselves all the time.  You never know what will happen!  I mean what fun would it be to watch the games if we could predict the outcomes.

Now that my shin splints are finally healed and I am almost free from this spring cold I will be out again with time to ponder my next blog and the posts will be a little more frequent.

It's a family thing

I took an easy week after the race and this week have started training again.  My legs were amazingly tired after the race and are still not quite back to normal but are doing much better now.  Oh to be 19 again.

My wife Jill has started coming out with me on my easy runs whenever she feels up to it.  While it slows me down a little it well, slows me down a little.  Makes me take an easy run instead of pushing myself to over train. 

Hopefully the slower pace will allow me to increase my distance safely.