Training for four half marathons over the past year has definitely taught me a lot of things. After all, you can go crazy if you do not have something interesting to focus on during miles ten and beyond. Sometimes I will just focus on another runner to help me keep pace (a "carrot" if you will). Other times I focus on things going on in my life to distract me from my legs' constant questioning of "What did we do to you to deserve this?" But while I have mastered the tricks necessary to get through my training, I have yet conquer, perhaps, the greatest hurdle: the overwhelming disappointment I feel in myself when a run does not go as well as I thought.
Distance running is a fickle sport. There are so many factors that contribute to the success, or lack thereof, for any given run. Temperature, wind, the call of nature, road conditions, and other runners are just a few. These are things that are out of a runners' control. But I am a competitive person, so when a run does not go as well as I had planned, I tend to be consumed by thoughts of what I did or did not do that contributed to the outcome.
If you have not guessed it by now, the San Francisco Half Marathon did not go as well as I had hoped. I will not lie, it was my slowest of the four. And to top it off, around mile ten I got [censored] on by a bird. And while my Better Half and my friends are great at making me feel better, the results have been eating away at me all week. And that is how I have gotten to this point, the start of what I call Operation: Game Changer. If I am going to be the runner I know I can be, some things have got to change. For starters, I did battle through a little burn out during training this time around, so I am taking the six weeks I have between now and the start of the next training period to enjoy some new forms of physical activities. For example, I did yoga with my Better Half this week (#WINNING), and it was great. I can also take this time to throw some weight training back into the routine, which is always enjoyable. Sure, I still need to run to keep my base up, but I am going to embrace the opportunity to freshen up my non-running days. Most importantly, however, is that I am going to really focus on my nutrition and finally conquer some of my life-long weight issues. Sure, my height and broad shoulders allow me to carry my weight without looking big, but the GameTime, TBD© family has not been blessed with best knees in the business. I have been stuck in this 225 to 230 pound zone for far too long. If I can get back to my "playing" weight, I figure the reduced stress on my joints is going to be good for a couple extra minutes alone.
My next half marathon is the Big Sur Half on November 20th. I actually run that half as a training run for the Surf City Half Marathon that falls on Super Bowl Sunday. But that will be my first marker of progress, and a run I am looking forward to more than ever. Operation: Game Changer has officially commenced.
Okay, that was probably a little heavier than you were expecting for your Link Dump introduction. So how about we me just go ahead and get to the more entertaining portion of our show?
- Look, Michelle, reputations come from somewhere. So maybe you need to think about your role in all of this as well.
- Feel-good, stor-y (clap, clap, clap clap clap).
- Northwestern wants your help picking its new basketball court design. Choice E, "Are These The Only Choices?", strangely absent.
- Matt Stairs retired on Wednesday, which is only news because it allows us to revisit the greatest quote in post-game press conference history.
- I do not remember this scene from Bull Durham.
- Perhaps a couple years in college would have done him some good.
- "Walker attempted to eat eight grams of marijuana before being arrested."
- Funny, I always thought "nude recreation" was a major offered at ASU. After all, is that not how most of its female population spends the majority of their six years there?
- I am going to go out on a limb and guess that she is probably looking for some new representation at this point in time.
- I played soccer for twelve years, and was definitely above average [Editor's Note: #humblebrag]. That being said, I could not do this if you gave one thousand chances (I'm guessing).
- In these fifty-nine seconds, the womens' athletic movement is set back roughly two decades. Impressive, no?
- Oh, and this is not helping either.
- See . . . I . . . what I meant was . . . um . . .
- A double dose of Jimmy Kimmel for you this week: (1) the always enjoyable (at least to me) Unnecessary Censorship; and (b) an introduction to Tiger Woods's new caddy.
- After watching this waterslide fail, I guess I can not be too surprised about the grammar fail.
- The best three minutes of your day. [Editor's Note: TWSS!]
No comments:
Post a Comment