That’s my new mantra for myself! HA! I haven’t been bold enough to say it out loud yet, but even as I write this, it makes me giggle nervously. “Diane, what the h#ll are you talking about? You’re Bad @ss??” Yeah! YEAH, I AM!!! or, I’m Gonna Be!! You’ll see!
This week while chatting with Marathon Brian — he set a new challenge for me. And it was simple. “Every day, every run, challenge yourself, Diane. Every single time. Push, Push, Push yourself, in small increments..to do better today, in some way, in some form…than you did yesterday.” Hmmmm. Interesting. More baby steps. I kinda like it.
As I transitioned into my new Training Schedule, I’ve settled into a running regimen that alternates one day with a 2 mile run, and the next day with Interval training, of about 1.5 miles. I asked Marathon Brian….shouldn’t I be running more than that? He just said “Nope“. Nope? Just Nope? So I set out on my own to find out, the “Why” behind the “Nope”. I really do believe that Karma rules our lives, and Life puts in front of you what you need, when you need it. This happened to me this week. I stumbled across a running article that talked about the common mistakes runners make in marathon training, and one of them was Don’t Run Too Many Slow Miles. Ooooh, this one caught my attention because I was already feeling like I should be running more miles.
So the gist of the article was….”that running alot of miles just teaches the runner how to run slow. And this marathon training thing isn’t about just going out and running as far as you can everyday. Rather the mission at this stage of my training is to learn how to run faster.” Hmm, Ok, I’m listening. This is good. The article went on to say all the same things that Marathon Brian had been trying to tell me. That shorter-distanced, faster paced runs designed to pick up speed was the goal. And Pushing myself to attain a faster pace, would pay off in the long (long long…marathon) run.
So, Pushing Myself and Picking Up Speed has become a new mantra also. My second and third Interval runs which took place this week was a good examples. Here’s how it went down. Interval Run 2 (which I will call IR2) was 4 cycles of 7.0 sprints and 5.0 recoveries on the treadmill. This was faster than the IR1, because at that time I was experimenting with my sprint speed..so ended up running 2 sprints at 6.5 and 2 sprints at 7.0 on the treadmill. Well, it may not sound like much of a difference, but I’m here to tell ya….running all 4 sprint cycles at 7.o damn near killed me. I was successful at the 4 sprints and the 4 recoveries…but where I failed was in the cool down. I couldn’t manage to finish the last .25 mile at the 5.0 treadmill speed. I lapsed into walking. D@MN! That’s how IR2 ended..with the bitter taste of defeat in my mouth.
Then I had a day off.
The next day, it was time for another 2 mile run. So I decided to Push myself. To be incrementally better today than my last 2 mile run. This run went down at 5.4 on the treadmill. All 2 miles! I had to PUUUUSH! But I did it. And it felt great. I had to bang it into that hard head of mine….that I d@mn well could run 5.0…..every ..day..of..the..week! This was a seed I was planting for the next day when I ran IR3.
IR3 went down with all 4 sprints and recovery runs in my pocket…like a check I had cashed days ago. Then came my cool down, and I ran that last .25 miles at 5.0…..gleefully knowing that I could do it at 5.4 if I had to……er, uh….just not today. That’s a PUSH for another day.
But I did IT! And that’s the lesson. That I’m completely capable of being incrementally better today than I was yesterday. And I make myself think that, make myself remember that whenever I get scared of the 26.2 miles. “Diane?…Hello??? You don’t have to run 26.2 miles today. Get your head out of January, Girl!! If you focus on being incrementally better today than you were yesterday…..well…WELL….by January 13th…..Girl…You Will Be BAD @ss!”
And so it was written……
Ciao for now…..Diane