Thoughts from the road

I had to do 7 today. This week has been rough with the crazy heat wave and my father-in-law being in ICU so I have been grabbing time to run whenever I can. I was going to go after work but my father-in-law wants to see Avery so I decided to go at lunch. It's definitely less humid than the past 4 days but still pretty warm. I started the .75 loop in my development which is the easiest part of any of my runs since its the flattest. Today it felt hard. My legs were heavy and I had a headache but I trudged on. I don't think the run ever got easier but I did my hill that I typically walk up toward my house and still ran another mile after that so I'm happy.

While running a few people and things came into my mind. The first was of Roo. She's talked about how running is as hard now as it was when she first did it. I understand this. This is me. There are just a few times when I can say it felt great from start to finish but most of the time the first 2 or 3 miles are as hard as the first time I ever ran 2 or 3 miles. Usually after that it gets a little better but today wasn't one of those days.

Then I thought of running partners. I realize there are only a few people I can run comfortably with. I would love to be able to run with anyone but with many I feel pressure to run faster than is comfortable. This takes the enjoyment out of running for me. I definitely can't race with people, even those I can run regularly with. This gets back to running being a personal thing. I run my way for me, that's when I run my best.

Next I thought about how mental running is. I had to do two bad hills today. I dread them. Thank goodness for my visor. I looked down and just stared at the pavement until I felt the ground get flat. Now I know how long these hills take. I can feel how hard it is to climb them but for some reason not seeing the incline allows me to conquer almost any hill. Crazy. I think that is one thing this base building is helping me with. The mental part of my running. I'm not worrying about speed. My goal is to get the miles in and I'm doing it. I'm not giving into laziness. I'm not walking if I feel like it, I might slow my pace down but I won't stop. I'm conquering the mental aspects now so that when its time for speed work I will follow through.

Hopefully my body will be able to keep up with my mind and there will be a nice synergy between them.