*Sean-William* Elite Runner:)Confessions of a Coach-14 "Coming up for Air":
Well, Well, Well - I have now successfully run out of gas on two of my last goal races! LOL. The Reality of the second race, "TDF 10k", was that I had only gotten 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. My daughter and son in-law had some business to take care of on Friday night, so I stayed up with my sweet grand babies. As I crawled into my bed, at 1:30 AM, I was thinking this is not going to be good :) When my alarm went off at 5:00 AM, the first thought that went through my head was "there is no way I'm going to the race today....NO Way!" At 5:30 AM, I found myself heading out the front door :) All the Runwell Runners were racing today, all with hopes of having a good run. And what a "Good Run" our Runwell Runners had! Now that's exciting news and such a good feeling to see your training pay off.
Well - after months of whining, crying, complaining, mental and physical breakdowns, I'm seeing some light at the end of tunnel. Nope, I'm not any faster, stronger or thinner! But I am starting to adjust my attitude! Steve came out last week and spoke about "Mental Fitness for Runners". He had a lot of really good information. I felt like his whole talk was just for me. The one thing that stuck in my head was this..."you can have a goal, but don't be attached to the goal." Jeez...I've been missing out. I've been so OBSESSED with my training and THE WATCH, that I forgot to have fun! Running was turning into chore. I was dreading my runs and most importantly - I've been missing out on enjoying what my training participants are doing. My running group all did amazing at the "TDF 10k/20k". Everyone ran a smart a race, looked strong and had fun...except me of course. That following Wednesday night was hill work. The same group were blasting up the hill several times, making comments like "this is good", "great workout" and I even heard one them say, "hey lets do another repeat"!?! WOW! As I drove a way that night, I was hit with an amazing feeling of how proud I am of my group and what wonderful runners they have become. Another little awakening I had was...I need to take lessons from my training participants. They are training hard, loving it, and running smart races.They are not worrying about the outcome of the what the clock will say, but instead, they are listening to their body and pushing from there. They are having Fun! :)
For our next Saturday long run, I changed all my screens on my Garmin to just show distance only. I can go back later and check the splits. But while I'm running, I don't want to worry with pace, average pace or any damn thing to do with time! Guess what? - I had a blast! It's been months since I've had so much fun running! We ran a hard course, taking on a lot of hills in Lakewood, and we were laughing and enjoying the awesome weather. The last few miles we pressed the pace. I mean we ran it hard and fast. It was a great - great long run! Best run I've had in a long time! So, I'm not throwing out my goal - just trying not to let it control me. From here on, I'm going to train like my training participants - because you know what? ...they got it down!
Well, Well, Well - I have now successfully run out of gas on two of my last goal races! LOL. The Reality of the second race, "TDF 10k", was that I had only gotten 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. My daughter and son in-law had some business to take care of on Friday night, so I stayed up with my sweet grand babies. As I crawled into my bed, at 1:30 AM, I was thinking this is not going to be good :) When my alarm went off at 5:00 AM, the first thought that went through my head was "there is no way I'm going to the race today....NO Way!" At 5:30 AM, I found myself heading out the front door :) All the Runwell Runners were racing today, all with hopes of having a good run. And what a "Good Run" our Runwell Runners had! Now that's exciting news and such a good feeling to see your training pay off.
Well - after months of whining, crying, complaining, mental and physical breakdowns, I'm seeing some light at the end of tunnel. Nope, I'm not any faster, stronger or thinner! But I am starting to adjust my attitude! Steve came out last week and spoke about "Mental Fitness for Runners". He had a lot of really good information. I felt like his whole talk was just for me. The one thing that stuck in my head was this..."you can have a goal, but don't be attached to the goal." Jeez...I've been missing out. I've been so OBSESSED with my training and THE WATCH, that I forgot to have fun! Running was turning into chore. I was dreading my runs and most importantly - I've been missing out on enjoying what my training participants are doing. My running group all did amazing at the "TDF 10k/20k". Everyone ran a smart a race, looked strong and had fun...except me of course. That following Wednesday night was hill work. The same group were blasting up the hill several times, making comments like "this is good", "great workout" and I even heard one them say, "hey lets do another repeat"!?! WOW! As I drove a way that night, I was hit with an amazing feeling of how proud I am of my group and what wonderful runners they have become. Another little awakening I had was...I need to take lessons from my training participants. They are training hard, loving it, and running smart races.They are not worrying about the outcome of the what the clock will say, but instead, they are listening to their body and pushing from there. They are having Fun! :)
For our next Saturday long run, I changed all my screens on my Garmin to just show distance only. I can go back later and check the splits. But while I'm running, I don't want to worry with pace, average pace or any damn thing to do with time! Guess what? - I had a blast! It's been months since I've had so much fun running! We ran a hard course, taking on a lot of hills in Lakewood, and we were laughing and enjoying the awesome weather. The last few miles we pressed the pace. I mean we ran it hard and fast. It was a great - great long run! Best run I've had in a long time! So, I'm not throwing out my goal - just trying not to let it control me. From here on, I'm going to train like my training participants - because you know what? ...they got it down!
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