Mind Over Matter

Sometimes the negativity is all in your head!  I've been beating myself up a wee bit this week...there's been plenty work stress, some expected, and the rest totally left-field and unnecessary...but hey, deal with it and move on...nothing like a wee crisis to fire the jets up....and I've also been a bit down on myself about training.  

The motivation wasn't really there this week, but on reflection, I've put in some pretty decent training!

Tuesday night was tempo night - a road 6 miler that PT Boy decided to join me on....no hiding place there then!  I grumbled along to myself as I chased him round the streets, but ran almost a minute faster than I did the same session on my own last week...with an average pace of 8.37 min/mile (which is pretty fast for me!)

Thursday I ran 'steady' with my sis-in-law...a tempo run for her, so the shoe was on the other foot!  I coached her round, and ranted all my work stress out in the process.  Same route as Tues but at 10:10 min/mile.

Having been away to London with work on Friday, the Saturday long run was always going to be a challenge.  Food and hydration when travelling weren't great, and being greeted by the dreich conditions in the morning didn't inspire me.  

View of LochArd on a better day! (clarkhamiltonphotography.com)

Clark was joining me with Cori dog, and the plan was for me to do 25 miles, and they would do 17/18....I was making excuses before we started, but knew that miles had to be run.  The first 8 were ok, the rest were pretty stinking....sleet, wind, and the 'protective trees' have mostly been felled on the outer sections of the route, and the path churned up by trucks.  I suspect I also wasn't eating/drinking enough in the early stages, and ultimately we agreed to call it a day at 20 miles as we were both soaked through and frozen to the core (which only an afternoon in front of the fire in my PJ's fixed!).  

HOWEVER.....in hindsight, at an average pace of just over 11 min/miles, this was actually a pretty decent pace for me over that distance, so I'm taking that as a success!

Today I still wasn't feeling hugely inspired....oh, great, another grey, wet day.... But I felt I should get another run in to finish the week as I might not get anything done mid-week next week as I'm going to be in Barcelona with work (well, somebody has to....).

I had the option to run on my own, get the head back on my shoulders.  So, with the favourite kit on, and 2 WHW podcasts to listen to (including finally listening to my interview on episode 51), I did a nice wee out and back 10 miler at Braco wind-turbines.  AND....it felt GOOD!  It's decent terrain...uphill all the way out, and nice runnable descent back...ending the week nicely with 9:51 ave min/mile for the session.

So I've decided it's been a pretty good week, the pace has been pretty good for me, weekly mileage up to just over 42 miles in some less than positive conditions and moods, and a weights session in the gym too.  These races aren't going to run themselves...there's no hiding place....get out there and train!  There are millions out there who don't have the luxury of choice!