Resistance Training - Temptation

After getting home from a great run in the snow with Stetson the first e-mail I find in my inbox is announcing a price increase tonight for the Publix Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon.  Adrenaline is still pushing through my veins at break neck speed and I began to head into the office to the computer when a very small voice faintly said, "remember your promise to this race, this is the one you need to beat, are you ready, are you really ready to set a personal best in a month on that course?  Are you?"

This race in 2010 was my first half marathon.  My sister came from Kansas City and we jogged and walked the course together.  A shared memory to last an eternity.  It was more than a rush to simply finish something that big. The following year, I trained harder and smarter and finished it again, knocking 17 minutes off the previous year's finish time.  It is a difficult course, with hills that seem to be endless.  The kind of hill that I have to go out of my neighborhood and search for in order to train adequately.  The humidity and pollen in March tend to make air thick, and so heavy it stings going into your lungs.  I have a nickname for this race, it isn't polite and not appropriate to include in this blog, but my dog friends will understand it is a female.

While driving home from a frustrating and disappointing finish in the Athens Half in October of 2013 I made a promise to that Publix course that I would regroup and use it to set my new personal best for a half.  March, 2014 would be my time.  I promised myself that I'd train so that I would deliver a performance that I was truly proud of.  More than a personal best, but I vowed I'd set a time goal that was worth the kind of effort I was ready to put out.  Athens was a painful event for me physically and mentally and I admit my ego was bruised.  Coming off an amazing Triathlon season where I shattered my previous personal best, by both my finish time, recovery time and performance, plus making a re-entry into the sport of Dog Agility after six years away with a new dog (Stetson), I was on a high that Athens almost crushed.  I felt like I'd been kicked.  I wasn't interested in just finishing anything anymore.  I wanted to set my goals to heights that would make me proud of the results.

From the beginning of November, until mid December I was really sick with an ear, sinus and respiratory problem.  I was never so ill when I smoked, and those weeks were filled with frustration and anxiety.  Finally around Christmas I was able to get back to working out some and began to build myself up again.  It didn't take long to get back into a routine, but I haven't pushed myself to train for the race.  I decided to play my recovery out and build for Triathlon season. I had mentally dismissed Publix until the email today.

Stetson has been a great running partner and he was on the trail with me at Kennesaw Mountain a few weeks back when I  set a new personal best for the trail.  Somehow, I let myself go with him.  It's easy to get wrapped up in the time together.  Twice I've been fortunate enough to take him for a run in the snow this year.  I hope I don't have a third opportunity, but today was especially nice.  Maybe because I've been watching the Olympics and following the Yukon Quest; somehow today felt more like an event than just a run.  The crunch of the snow under our feet and the birds singing overhead helped to lift me up out of my normal routine run.  The snow on the lines, brush, trees and houses was so beautiful, I forgot for those forty-five minutes that it had been an unprecedented storm here in the Southeast that brought this beauty to my eyes.

Sweetness

Beginning our second loop in the neighborhood

His hocks collected little snowballs, but his pads stayed clear

I'm going to listen to that little tiny voice in my head and honor my goal.  The 2014 Publix will go on without me, maybe I'll be on a trail with my dog somewhere.  I hope so.

Mutual adoration

It is easy to get wrapped up in the physical training for a sport and forget that the mental game is the toughest part.  There are times that when the physical training fails, the mental toughness brings you through.  But you have to train it and it must be trained more often than the physical.  Today was my mental game winner.  My brain achieved a new level of resistance training and stood up to temptation.  My promise lives, 2015 will be the new marker.