I wasn’t sure…

… I had so many doubts about this morning’s workout. I’m still taking antibiotics for WHAT EVER WAS LEFT OVER from last month.  I’m feeling better – so very much better.

My training schedule of 30 minute runs had changed to include an hour and 15 minute run.

That scared me.  It’s a long time to be running.  I haven’t run over 4 miles [about an hour of running] since OCTOBER and that was outdoors on the trail. I knew that I was going to have to do 75 minutes indoors on the elevated track.

Ugh.

I just couldn’t think about that much time being spent on the track running in circles.

If you wanna HANG WITH THE BIG DAWGS, you’ve got to put in the work.

I’m one of those people who is easily overwhelmed.  I’m a musician – when I’m learning a new piece – I have to break it down into sections.  Most music is COMPOSED IN A-B-A FORM, therefore, if you learn the ‘A’ section – you’ve learned 2/3’s of the song!

I do the same thing for running.  When I run the track, I can’t keep ‘lap’ count – believe me, I’ve tried.  I can get to about lap 6 and then after that it may as well be lap 17, I’ve lost count.  Because I’m training with a 5/1 [five minutes running – one minute walking], I timed myself running for 5 minutes.  It’s approximately 4 laps.

I’ve been running 4 laps and walking one – I try to run at the same pace and walk FASTER than I think I should to keep the time steady.  It seems to be working for me.  I’m completing the times and racking up the mileage.

Still – conquering 75 minutes when I’ve been running 30-40 minutes?

HARD.

I sat in the car for a good 8 minutes before I could summon up the courage to go into the gym.  I was dreading the run, but I knew I had to do it.

I won’t kid you – it wasn’t easy. 

I bartered with myself: Just get through the first 4 laps.  That’s all you need to do… 4 laps. Then you can walk.

And I kept doing that – over and over and over.  45 minutes went by…

I was physically becoming tired and I knew I had a choice to make because I wasn’t able to sustain running 4 laps.  My pace was slowing down.  I figured rather than just walk the rest of the time – I’d break it down again.  I ran two laps and walked one lap.

I fell into that groove and it was worked. 

For a while.

Rather than walk for the final 5 minutes, I changed it up again and ran one lap then walked one.

I did some HARD talking to myself.  HARD TALKING those last 30 minutes of running.  It took everything I had to keep moving, but somehow, when I broke it down – I knew I could get through it.

I was pretty close to GREAT RACE 2011 PACE for a 10k.  That surprised me – I figured I’d lost a lot not having run so much these last few months.

A 10k [6.2 miles] is only half-way to the 13.1 miles I need for the Half Marathon and I will need many more L-O-N-G training runs.  I’m going to have to dig deep.  DEEP to get through them.

I’m encouraged.  I’ve got the motivation again…

I BELIEVE.