Progress report: 25 November 2008

Little to report today. I am taking today off after my 62:00 run yesterday morning. I will put runs in tomorrow, Friday, and likely on Saturday as well. My right hamstring is still noticeably tight. I know this has been linked to a hip flexor issue for the better part of 6 months, but I just cannot seem to shake it. I am doing my best to be mindful of it, but another trip to the massage therapist may be in order.

So I sat home last night and watched videos from the Philadelphia Marathon. Of course, I was completely sucked into the emotion and grandeur of the whole thing. The question keeps popping into my mind... Can I really do that? I wonder. I truly wonder.

But then I think back to the No Boundaries groups I have been coaching. Surely when they started off on their respective journeys they felt some sense of trepidation, some inkling of doubt. The initial intervals of 90 seconds of running must have seemed like an eternity for some of them. In fact, they told me as much... OFTEN. This, for me, is really no different than that.
I preach all the time that our bodies want to be progressively more and more active. However it is our minds which work to prevent our bodies from doing that which they were obviously built to acheive... MOVE. My most negative thinking with regard to distance running usually comes during the tougher part of a training run... My mind, in an attempt to shut down the whole operation, will do anything and everything to debilitate my efforts and put me on a fast track including little more than the couch, the refrigerator and, if I am lucky, the bathroom.

So, in the end, it really is nothing more complicated than mind over matter. I don't mind running so long as I don't let my brain matter, well, matter. Pushing that mental edge of the equation is truly the great variable in the equation of self-care. Each person's value attached to that variable is different. Some can push to the N-th degree without even thinking about it. Me, I tend to want to cave in. During my first half marathon, I wanted to stop. I really did. The last three (3) miles were the worst I have ever run in my life in every way imagineable. I thought about cutting across the line during the little out-and-back part. I even thought about quitting altogether. What was I ever thinking when I signed up for this thing?

But something funny happened on the way to the Forum... I did it. I stopped listening to my mind and just went. Now, when I finished, I WAS finished. No doubt there. But there was no real sense of regret for having done it. Rather, the first thing that popped into my mind was: "What's next?"

Well, I think I found it. The third Sunday in November, 2009. The Philadelphia Marathon. I am not sayin'. I'm just sayin'. It's a thought. Hopefully, my brain will not get too much in the way.