I have been real anxious to run ever since the injury. It makes me think back on a particular teenage experience. For approximately 4 months at the age of 16 I lived with my aunt rather than my parents for a variety of different reasons. I had grown up playing and competing in piano performance since the age of 5, but for this four month stint I had to quit lessons. A hobby I used to despise turned into a hobby I loved due to the lack of access. Upon moving back in with my parents I became extremely serious about competing and auditioned and was lucky enough to be accepted to an honorable studio in Orem, a city an hour and half away from my home. I started practicing four to five hours a day, driving once or twice a week to Orem for lessons and began competing on a whole new level.

The above example isn’t an “apple to apple” comparison as I doubt highly I ever become that motivated with running. Rather I bring it up as an example that sometimes I am surprised by the things I miss once no longer in my life. I have always ran as a way to keep in shape and never really enjoyed it, though I have done a couple of races. Yet, now I really miss it and look forward to training for another half or full marathon.

Today’s run was a short and succinct one mile, but the ankle felt okay and I think if I taped it prior to the next run there is the possibility it might feel pretty good. I think if the ankle isn’t swollen in the morning, I might go out for an early run.

My friend, Ms. Pear, ran it and finished with a 1:53. Good job!

The course starts at the University of Utah Olympic Legacy Bridge and winds itself through foothill, sugarhouse park, the main strip of sugarhouse, liberty park, pioneer park and ends at the Gateway. The course highlights many of the great neighborhoods of Salt Lake, but is also well laid out in the sense of very few hills and enough turns to avoid the mental block.

Ms. Pear and I are shooting for a 2 hour race time and we completed our run in 2 hours and 2min, plus probably an extra 10 minutes when we stopped to look at the map or eat some Gu (which we did not calculate into our time). I think both Ms. Pear and I are feeling pretty good about the course and are getting excited for race day.

Next weekend I am looking to find a running partner to run the actual path of the race. If anyone is interested, let me know.

If I am too tired and genuinely take the fall is fine. However, if I am falling because I haven’t taken a rest is a problem. I often catch myself not taking these rests as I feel like I am not recovering while resting due to the point that I am still exerting energy and can only shake one arm at a time. The silly part is if I take a fall, I can rest briefly and hop back on and finish the route.

I was thinking about this today as I was running because I hit a similar mental block when I am doing a solo run. I have a horrible habit of walking during these solo runs because I feel tired, mentally want to stop because I am bored and due to the point that there isn’t anyone pushing me. Today I did a little mental test where instead of letting myself walk when I hit this block, I would slow my pace down to a walk pace but still be “jogging” and just focus on catching my breath and clearing my head (similar to what I would be doing while resting on a climb). The conclusion was that this slower pace completely helped me recover and I was able to finish off the run quite easily.

Even though rests on a climb aren’t always available like the opportunity to slow down during a run, it still compares in the sense that I need to realize that these rests are actually helping me recover though I am still exerting energy.

These mental blocks are noticeable in my hobbies and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the same mental block is affecting other areas of my life. Perhaps I can slowly implement it to all areas of my life by beginning with my runs.

I am getting a slow start to the training process. The race is two months away, I signed up just last week and then got sick for a week. Due to this fact, I am going to not count the runs I have done in this past week and start fresh with this upcoming week (which means I probably should have skipped out on that 3 miler I did today…. he he he… just kidding).

Here is the gameplan, which I will fill in as I accomplish them (hopefully).

Week 1: (Feb 26 Week)

• A Speed Training of 3 miles – Done on a treadmill at The Front. For being the first run of the training and it speed training, it felt surprising good.
• Strength Training of 3 miles – Done on the roads, running east from my house since there is a slight increase in grade. The run felt ok, but definitely not good.
• Long Run: 5 miles – I need to go out today, but instead I am blogging with my chihuahua on my lap.

Week 2: (March 5 Week)

• A Strength Training Run – Done. I ran to the gym rather than driving. The run felt spectacular and I am still trying to figure out why. I think it was due to the food I had eaten that day and when I had eaten.
• Speed Training run consisting of 3-4 miles each – missed this run. =(
• Long run of 5 miles – Done. Complete this with Ms. Pear. We ran around the neighborhood and did a couple of laps at Liberty Park.

Week 3: (March 12 Week)

• Strength Training run – 3miles around the University of Utah and past Steiners. It felt like a great run.
• Long Run of 7 miles – Ms. Pear and I ran approximately 7+ on the Pipeline trail during the week. It was a fantastic run!
• Speed Training – missed this run because I went out of town over the weekend to climb.

Week 4: (March 19 Week)

• A Strength Training run and Speed Training run consisting of 3-4 miles each, Long Run of 9 miles: missed every single run due to a horrendously busy week at work

Week 5: (March 26 Week)

• A Strength Training run: this run felt anything but good. I ran down to the sugarhouse area and back, equaling about 3.5 miles.
• Speed Training run: this run felt good and I focused on keeping a good pace, but slowing it (rather than walking) upon getting tired. 2.5 miles.
• Long Run of 10 miles: this run felt fantastic. I did some laps around Liberty park, ran down to Sugarhouse and made a loop ending at my house.

Week 6: (April 2 Week)

• A Strength Training run and Speed Training run consisting of 3-4 miles each, Long Run of 13 miles.

Week 7: (April 9 Week)

• A Strength Training run and Speed Training run consisting of 3-4 miles each, Long Run of 10 miles.

Week 8: (April 16 Week)

• Two easy runs consisting of 3 – 4 miles each.
• Long Run: Half Marathon that Saturday, the 21st.

I am looking for running partners as the Crag Baby can only go for about a mile. If anyone is interested, let me know.

So, I signed up for the Salt Lake half. If anyone is interested in joining in, let me know. Party, party, party.