“I am better than I was yesterday but not as good as I will be tomorrow.”

This week’s long run was not only a physical breakthrough, but an important mental one.  Remember when I mentioned a while back that I needed to get ok running by myself?  Well I have continued to avoid it, until I was kind of forced to run alone Saturday.  Most of our running club was participating in the Turkey Trot 5k, Pam is still on limited mileage, and now that we have all heard from Paul – we know where he is.  So, I did the first 3 miles with Pam (great job with the pace Pam!) and completed the last 7 by myself!  I continue to use the 10 minute run, 1 minute walk method to mentally deal with the longer mileage.  WOW am I encouraged that I will be better tomorrow.  I completed the 10 mile run/walk with an average pace of 8:45 and felt great.  Physically I was strong, maintained my form, and felt super efficient.  Mentally, I managed the “only running 10 minutes at a time” really well.  The bonus was, I did not feel totally wrecked after the run, as I have for the past 5 weeks with these double digits runs.

I have had two appointments with Dr. Potter (the chiropractor Pam recommended) and my foot pain is definitely improving – yeah!!  Thank you Dr. Potter.  As our Wednesday evening speed group continues our winter training of plyometrics, form drills, and kettle bell strength training I am anticipating improvements for all in leaps and bounds.  I am convinced my feeling so strong on Saturday’s run is due to the strength training and power work.

My motivation to get up and in the pool continues to be a bit of an achilles heal.  I am not too worried about it though, as I truly  believe that during this time of the year it will be important to rest as to not get burned out before the “real” training starts.

For this week of Thanksgiving, always remember to keep in your mind and your heart that “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow” – Melody Beattie

Happy Thanksgiving to all and cherish the time with your family, friends, and loved ones!