Monday, May 17, 2010

Checking in, like constantly

Since Illinois I've been making it a daily, sometimes twice daily habit to do a mental and physical check-in with myself.  I want to assure I'm in the right place and ready to tackle another 26.2.  Physically this didn't and doesn't appear to be a problem but the mental adjustment was larger.  I needed to reset the thought that I was wrapping up a cycle and get it moving forward again, for another 4 weeks.  I also needed to move past whatever thoughts I generated in hindsight from IL and fully engage myself into VCM.    Sure, applying lessons learned is a must but equally important is treating each running experience as it's own independent event.

And so the check-ins continue.

After a week of recovery and lower mileage I logged another 60+ week with a quality tempo workout and a fast finish 20 miler.   Both went very well and were nice confidence boosters.   And so I find myself back into taper mode in the first part of another 45 or so mile week and lots of rest when possible.  I also (lucky me!) find myself in another high-profile & stressful work project - gah, these things follow me around like my shadow.  Will be getting lots of yoga in to deal with both the taper and the stress  :-)

2 comments:

Runnin-From-The-Law said...

And if the yoga doesn't work, might I recommend beer as a stress reducing remedy?

Mindi said...

Smart strategy. And I understand your hesitation. My very best marathon was 3 weeks after a failed attempt due to heat. Believe in yourself and listen to your body. I bet you will be very pleasantly surprised!