Sunday, February 13, 2011

Run #38 - I Won the Mental Battle

I'm still processing this run.  

I was mentally ready. I was going to have a great run. The longest run before the half marathon. The weather was gorgeous. I stretched, grabbed my water and was out the door. It started to rain. I was pleased. I have good runs in the rain. But then it stopped raining and I stopped feeling capable of running. Basically, at 1.89 miles in I was texting Lesley in the middle of a mental breakdown. I was almost in tears. My legs would NOT work with me. Mostly it was my lower legs. I wasn't running fast. I was just trying to keep a nice steady pace, but I couldn't get it going. I felt like a complete failure instantly. I just wanted to run this without stopping unless I was refilling my water. I totally failed at that.

The good news is at about 3.6 miles I started to feel back to normal again. What a relief! I felt like I won the mental battle and was ready to redeem myself with the remaining miles, of which I had a lot. Today I did 4 laps through the park/duck pond/VA. The weather stayed gorgeous and everyone I met up with was really friendly. No kids taunting me. No feelings of questionable safety. I even saw a rent-a-cop at the VA area pull over to talk to some kids that seemed to be loitering. I saw them at the entrance ... and they weren't but a half mile further from there when I saw them again. The loop is about 2.6 miles or so. So I ran a lot while they made it nowhere. Seeing the uniformed guy pull over and talk to them was comforting to me actually.

So I did the full ELEVEN miles (YES!!!) in exactly 2 hours. I think my performance wasn't as good as the time makes it look, but I'm just going to brush it off. My mind was messing with me big time, but I did pull it together, so that's a good thing!

On my final lap I saw this at the duck pond and thought I'd snag a picture to share with you all! I just do a small internal loop because it feels safer and more open there ... the other parts are more wooded areas with no business or roads near by. Sounds nice, but there are have been more than a couple people attacked there, so I just stay clear!


12 comments:

  1. Great job Rhonda! I'm so glad you did this! You've got this thing! How exciting to see your hard work pay off! :) So happy for you!

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  2. Congrats on doing the 11. Relax! You have put in your time for the big race. When you begin to taper you will feel a lot better. Good luck!

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  3. 11 miles! Congrats - that is HUGE!!!

    Enjoy your taper weeks and see you soon!

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  4. YOU ARE AWESOME.

    Great job motoring through lead legs.

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  5. Go you go! Dude, your gonna rULe the race!!!!!!

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  6. Well done...those runs are tough! You got it out of the way so you can rock your race, eh?

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  7. Congrats on 11!! :) And mental games with yourself are no fun but you worked through them! Now the fun part...taper time!

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  8. You WON the battle. It is 90 % mental...

    I don't run around that pond either....but took the boys back there once, just to explore. Then I thought...This ain't a good spot. I get the same feeling along part of the river, but have only done a race there- no training.

    It's soon! You are going to be SO ready!!!!

    PS thanks for the info about the denomination. I was raised in the evengelical - but go to a totally different type of church now.

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  9. 11 miles!! Boop boop, whoa yeah!!! (In the words of La Sarah!!)

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  10. Yay for 11 miles!! And yay for pushing through the mental battle!

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  11. Congrats! Be proud that you finished...that it the main objective of the long runs. And you fought through it which will make you a better runner in the end. You're doing great and will run a fantastic half marathon race.

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  12. Great job on the run! It's hard to fight the mental battle on a solo run, I think. You're doing great!

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Thanks for reading my little blog, your comments rock my compression socks!! ºoº