mojo is returning
Well thanks for your positive comments! They definitely gave me some things to think about.
Today at lunch I went for a short (20 minute) very fast run. I’ll be doing another two just like it this week before the race to shake the legs out and work strictly on leg turnover .
The run felt really great!
After what was one of the worst days ever at my job, I went for a rollerblade with Aaron. He had some words of wisdom of his own to add. He told me to set my watch to beep in intervals equal to my pace (i.e. every 4 minutes, 45 seconds) so I can focus on reaching the kilometer markers on the beeps. GREAT advice. I’d almost forgotten about this technique which I used in my last marathon. I’m sure it was a big part of why I PR’d then.
Aaron’s advice made me think about past successes and shortfalls and what made them so. I believe I can boil things down to five things:
1) Do the work – put in the training. I’ve worked hard so I think I’ve got this covered.
2) Taper well remembering that little or no gain is made for training runs occuring less than 10 days prior to race day.
3) Sleep, eat, and drink well during the taper and immediately before the race.
4) Have a plan. Part of my plan is to take Aaron’s advice. Another part is to use a pace band. I find those immensely valuable. Like the beeping watch, they were also present in my PR marathon. The last part of my plan is to start out a bit slow and build speed. A markedly different approach than how I would race a 10k or 5 miler.
5) Leave the rest to the “Running Gods”. You can only do what you can do so release anxiety concerning the unknown/uncontrollable and be confident in what you’ve done prior to race day.
After our rollerblade, I ran out to the car. My feet and legs felt light as air. I’m talking SPRINGY light!
I’ll be ready.
(I’ve got my mental game on now Chris!)
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Wednesday August 18, 2004 @
#2 – I’m thinking that this means that for any hard workout during training, you aren’t going to see its benefits until 10 days down the road. Maybe this is saying muscles change slower than we think. A week and a half makes sense I think.
Isn’t there some famous runner that trained with a metronome? Or was that in Chariots of Fire?
When I used to scuba dive we had a saying: plan your dive, dive your plan. Maybe it fits racing too.
Good stuff, Mark.