Half this Stuff is 90% Mental

After a mentally challenging month I dubbed “No Run December,” I’m back on the asphalt.  The year started with a few ticklers, then on Saturday, decided to get a honest reading on my fitness. 

When I start running, I often have no idea how far I’m going.  I just take off up the street and play it by ear, but sometimes that gets me in trouble.  I don’t have mental capacity for walking back home and often find myself in serious pain at the end of runs.  I suppose that strategy ultimately helped me at Wisconsin, but it’s an entirely different deal when you are 5 miles in with four miles back to your house.   
None of it was easy, but I kept repeating, “don’t quit” in my mind.  Once you stop running, you’re sunk.   

Stopping to walk is a hard habit to break and I don’t want the addiction.  I’ve gone through some pretty intense training for Ironman, and really believe branding “non-stop” mentality into my brain was one of the toughest things to do. 

I only ran 9 miles on Saturday and half of it was hell.  The good news for me, though, is that most of my struggles were cardio.  My legs felt pretty strong and I “proved” to myself I’m still in pretty decent shape. 

Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans is the only race on my calendar at the moment and I feel relatively secure, but know I have to pick it up if I want to hit my time goal.  But, patience is the key.  We have to be patient . . . with everything. 

I have to let the story unfold.  Just because I can’t do it, understand it, or visualize it now, doesn’t mean I won’t be ready then.  I have to trust the process and peak when the time is right.  New Orleans is a race along the way, but it’s not my primary goal.  Louisville is king and I want to peak on that day.  Not now, not the day after, but on August 24th. 

But, I also want to enjoy the process.  It is a methodical journey of finding solutions and motivational tactics.  It is about sticking with the plan and believing you will rise to the challenge. 

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Note: I sort of borrowed the concept for that title from one of my favorite Yogi Berra quotes: “Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.”