A Team Thing

So training last week was back to the 9 mile minimum. It was still a bit tough though. For example I was in the middle what was supposed to be my first "speed" workout, and didn't exactly finish the full workout. The workout was supposed to be 6 x 1miles with 1 min rest. I got about 2 x 1miles with 1 min rest! I may have gone a bit too hard, first one was 525 and second one was 545. I started the third but that little voice popped into my head and made me pull up. Everyone knows the voice. It's just the simple idea that pops into your head that says "you know you can stop right?" Back in the day when I was rowing, I was really good at shutting the voice out. I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times I gave into the voice, and all those times were during the off season. And that begs the question, "how do I go back to the old me when things get harder during training and when things are REALLY hard 2hr30min into the marathon? When I was rowing I always felt like I had to perform beyond my abilities because my teammates were counting on me. I had this narcissistic view of myself that everyone expected me to be the one they can count on if things got tough. Maybe narcissistic is a bit strong, but its something I think everyone has that competes at a high level in a team sport (see picture of back in the erg dungeon, suffering together). And that's just it, I am training and performing at a high level now. My macho-instincts have died down over the years (no joke, you should ask people like Joe Gwin and Arthur Peterson what they used to call me freshman year: "angry Don"), so even though I have been doing everyone on my own, it's going to take more on race day. That is why I am so happy I decided to joined up with the American Cancer Society. I have personal reasons of why I chose this group, but seeing the others running with the same jersey, and seeing the people on the sidewalks with the ACS shirts will give me the feeling I am on a team, that people are depending on me. Not only that but everyone that has supported me with kind words of encouragement and donations has really helped during all the times that voice pops into my head. The money I raise will probably be a drop in the bucket compared to other people, but hopefully this whole experience will inspire others to do something similar. That being said, I want to thank everyone who has donated so far! We have passed the $1,000 mark and hopefully we can continue this rate up to the race!

So this week has begun and thus far I have run 23.5 miles in 2 days. Yesterday I did 13.5 and did it in 1hr30min and today I did 10miles just over an hour. It was a great 2 days. This morning I woke up with sore as !?*$ arches. Weird because shoes are somewhat new and I've never had a problem with my feet (except for my toenails cutting my toes because i forgot to cut them... sorry... that was gross... TMI... OMG... ttyl... bff... sorry off on tangent). But today's run was actually pretty good. Tomorrow will be a crosstraining day: core, lifting, and cycling. Thursday will be a speed day and hopefully friday will be a long easy day (2hrs should do the trick).

Alrighty all... till next time! Keep spreading the word! Every $ helps!