Marathon Training Week 7: Ring of Fire

Coming off that great week of fast runs and cooler temps, I headed into week 7 feeling strong and ready to tackle the rest of my training. With the return of high temps and humidity in the forecast, I hoped to be able to draw on that confidence building week and push through my training strong!

Monday morning I had an 8 mile run at MP on the plan. Grateful that I had had a long bike ride as opposed to a long run the day before, I set my alarm for 4:30. When I woke up, not only was it dark, but it was also very foggy. I put on my Petzl Tikka headlamp and headed out. The LED light was so bright that all I could see is the foggy mist coming at me. It was hard to see the road. About a block from my home, I smelled a skunk and when I looked over, there was one right next to me, rearing up on its front legs. That could only mean one thing. That was the charge I needed to move it, and move it I did. When I got to the path, I saw that there were other runners there, wearing headlamps too. I started to relax, but a creepy cyclist who stared at me every time he passed me kept me on alert. I aimed my headlamp at his face, hoping to blind him. I'm not sure if it worked. I was pleased and surprised when I saw my pace on the Garmin: 8:35 miles in 1:11 for an average pace of 8:33 min/mile.

Tuesday: I headed to CrossFit for a MetCon session with Becky. When I woke up, I was really dizzy, and I considered cancelling with her. Turns out, she wasn't feeling well either. I pushed through intervals of rowing with 4 different activities: waiters lunges, box jumps, sumo deadlifts, and kettlebell swings. I drank a ton of water and Nuun. But when I got home and stepped out of the shower, the room kept spinning and I felt really nauseous. I hated to do it, but I called off work and spent the day on the couch. I felt like crap all day. Was it a virus that I picked up in the clinic? A migraine? Or those intervals? Hey, at least I got my workout in, right?

Made my heart pound!

Wednesday was yoga. Kathy's theme for the class was the breath. She led the class through a challenging series of poses, always emphasizing moving on the breath. All this yoga breathing really translates well to the road. At the end of the class we did some backbending, including wheel pose.

Thursday I had speed work on the plan, 2 mile repeats x3. I wanted to get out early, but my youngest son was struggling with his asthma and allergies, and I needed to get him settled before I headed out. When I got to the path, it was already 77 degrees. Add in the humidity, and it was really uncomfortable. The first 2 miles went pretty well, and I thought to myself that maybe, I got this heat thing! Miles 3 and 4 were tough. Before I started on my last interval, I gave myself a little more walking time, and stopped at the drinking fountain for lots of water. I considered stopping after 4, because I knew I couldn't maintain the split times I had for the first 2. I felt pretty sick. I finally talked myself into just running the last 2, and I did, this split one minute slower than the previous one. Because of that slow last interval, I didn't feel really victorious until I recovered and thought about staying mentally tough and not giving up. I still hit my goal pace, for an average of 8:17min/mile. And when I got in the car to go home, guess what song was playing on the radio? Yep, Don't Stop Belivin'. Coincidence? I think not...

Speedwork done. Splits: 15:59, 16:21, 17:22. Don't even stop believin'.

After I had breakfast, I headed to see Becky at CrossFit. She had me do back squats, with progressively heavier weights and CHAINS, yes chains, dangling from the barbell. The purpose of the chains was for me to keep control of the bar. When I squatted, the bar wanted to pull me back. This is great for hip stability, and also for the glutes. In between sets, she had me push the prowler. Outside. 

Friday was a rest day. After all the hard work I do during marathon training, I always look forward to my rest days. But by the end of my work day, I was really needing a run. The day was incredibly stressful and overwhelming. I was near tears by the end of the day. I won't go into details, but just suffice it to say that there was no run, but lots of wine for me when I got home.

Saturday, I had a 5 miler on the plan. No pace, no plan for this run. Just a run. My legs still felt heavy from Thursday's workout, and I had to stop after mile 1 to stretch my calves. But as I watched the sunrise, I started to loosen up. Inspired by the beautiful morning sky, I stopped to strike a pose in the park. And another. I finished this run with a smile on my face. And somehow, managed to eake out an MP run: 8:47 min/mile.

Warrior one. Feeling stronger as the run went on.

Greeting the sun.

Sunday: I woke up early to beat the heat for my 12 miler, and was out the door by 6:45. The temp was already 75, with 70% humidity, and I took it slow. I had to do a lot of tough self talk to push through those first 3 miles. 

My brain: "It's too hot. Go home. Give up.". 

Me: "I need this run. If I can do this run, I can do this marathon. I can't quit. It's only 12 miles. " 

About mile 4, my brain gave up, and the run became much easier. I chugged up the big-for-me hill without stopping. And made it to the gas station at mile 5.5 for a pit stop. When I came out, there was a sweaty but very attractive male runner buying gatorade. We made small talk, and I headed back out the door, a little peppier for that interaction. Hey, I may be old, but I'm not dead yet! I turned around at mile 6, and headed back the way I came. Luckily, the path is pretty shady. There was also a nice breeze. I started to struggle again, about mile 9, and those final 3 miles were a battle between my brain, which was again doing its best to make me quit, and my will to finish this thing on my terms. Which I did, 12. 09 miles in 1:51:10. In the interest of full disclosure, I did stop a few times, and my Garmin stops when I do. Hey, it's a training run...

I was so happy to be done with this run.

Even though we were back in the blast furnace, I'm really happy with this week of training. Yes, the heat and humidity made it really hard to push through all my workouts, but I got them all done without quitting. And that tenacity will pay off on the marathon course when I want to quit. Training is not always about paces and mile splits. The so-called experts say that running is 90% mental, and these tough runs in the heat and humidity were all about mental toughness. I'll need to dig deep in the last 10k of the marathon, and I'll have these runs to draw on. This upcoming week, I'm looking forward to cooler temps and a half marathon next weekend.

So what song captured this week of training? There were so many good ones, but I picked Social Distortion's Ring of Fire. Considering the conditions so many of us have been subjected to this summer, I found it fitting. "Cause it burns, burns, burns...." I sang along with it on my long run today. By the way, I do love the original by Johnny Cash, but the version by Social Distortion is a little more uptempo.

Tell me about your week! How did your training go? Anything along the road put a little pep in your step?  Any songs that made your run go faster?

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippiPiddlin' for their weekly wrap!

7 things about me and #7day stretch #LiveinPrana Instagram Challenge

You know I love me some yoga. Last February, I participated in Prana's 30 day yoga challenge. This past week, I jumped on Prana and Sweatpink's #7daystretch #liveinprana challenge. If you are not on instagram, you may not have even known this was happening! I have to say I loved seeing my feed full of beautiful yoga poses. Participants were given prompts and tasked to come up with a pose that defined what that prompt meant to them.

Some of the poses I did last week!

So in the spirit of the #7daystretch, Smitha at Running with SD Mom tagged me to answer 7 things you might not know about me. I do love these little surveys....

I am wildly obsessed with: finding the fountain of youth. I know I can't stop getting older, but I'm not going out without a fight!

I have a secret collection of: running socks. I don't know how secret my collection is, but my secret is out. I love running socks. Yes, I am an ambassador for SLS3, but outside of compression socks, I love all the brands. The more fun, the better.

I am secretly: If you listened to my running playlist, you'd swear that I'm an adolescent boy. Lots of rock, rap, and metal. It's my jam. I listen to the rock station in the car too. Who's old?

When I was 7 I wanted to be: The weather lady! A big thrill for me as a little girl was when visiting my grandparents in Chicago, I could call the "weather lady" on the phone. It was just a prerecorded forecast for Chicago and was a big thrill for a small town little girl. This was before the internet, and we lived so far from Chicago that to call from my house would be long distance. I cringe at this memory. My parents were kind to indulge me. At home, I even had a weather station, with all the gauges and everything. I have to admit, I still am a bit obsessed with the weather. I only have, say 5 apps or so on my phone...

If I could do one thing today it would be: make equal, high quality, affordable healthcare available to everyone. I work as a nurse practitioner and it bothers me greatly not always being able to provide the level of care that I believe my patients deserve. Insurance constraints often limit what I can prescribe or what services I can offer. It's terribly frustrating.

I've always dreamt of: being a mom. I always wanted to have kids. I can't believe that mine are almost grown. Sigh...

My favorite way to travel is: flying. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with flying. I love getting to my destination as quickly as possible. But I hate the logistics--the airport security lines, the nickle and diming that the airlines do to passengers. I love to travel, and flying is just a necessary evil.

Join in the fun! I tag Briana, Kristina, and Beth to share 7 things I didn't know about you! Just fill in the blanks and tag @prana @fitapproach and use the hashtags #liveinprana #7daystretch, and #sweatpink. Tag your friends, your followers...whoever is listening!

Tell me at least one thing that I didn't know about you!

Staying on track

People always say things to me like, "oh, you're so good. You always make sure to get your runs in." Well, I don't know if it has anything to do with being good.

For me, it's about staying accountable. I'm taking responsibility for my fitness. I'm committed to staying fit. I've got goals, dammit! And how can I meet my goals if I don't do the work? That race isn't going to run itself! What if I just showed up to a race without training? How far would that get me? To the medical tent?

Oh, wait, I did end up there last year after I ran Chicago. Briefly. My calves cramped up and I couldn't stand up after I crossed the finish line. Oops!

All joking aside, the funny thing about running and fitness is that the only person you have to be accountable to is yourself. Really, no one cares about your run. Sad, but true. And no one is going to do it for you. Well, I guess someone could run the race with your race bib...but that's a different blog post. That would be cheating. Certainly not being accountable.

If you are struggling with accountability, there are some things you can do to stay on track.

Make a commitment to yourself. Have you heard the saying: make yourself the priority? It's not just fluff. Remind yourself of how good you'll feel after completing the run. Maybe not physically, but mentally. That feeling of accomplishment sure beats that feeling of giving up. It's one more step towards meeting whatever goals you have set for yourself.

Set realistic goals. Don't bite off more than you can chew. It's hard to stay on track when you're overwhelmed by a training plan. You don't start out running by training for a marathon. And be realistic about your abilities. Don't set a time goal for your first race. Be content with finishing and even better, finishing strong.

Share your plans. There's nothing better for assuring accountability than by putting your goals and plans out there for the world to see. Yep. I did it, telling everyone about my desire for a sub-4 marathon. How will I do that unless I do the work?

Find a running partner. I run solo, but a lot of people who run with a friend or a group tell me that having a partner keeps them accountable.  If you don't show up to run, you not only let yourself down, but also the person(s) that you've promised to run with. That doesn't feel good now, does it?

Treat running like a job. Oh sure, it's a heck of a lot easier to go to work, knowing that you get a paycheck. But if you think about it, there is a paycheck with running, like improved health and fitness, weight loss, being able to eat all the food, and looking great in your clothes? Oh, and not to mention some bling around your neck when you cross the finish line of a race!

Be stronger than your excuses. If you don't get out for a run, you can't blame anyone but yourself. Bad weather? Nope. No excuse. Too busy? Get up earlier in the morning. If you need more incentive, check out these posts on excuses and no excuses.

I like to reuse good memes....

Make running a priority. Set aside time to get your workouts in. Set your alarm for an earlier rising time. And once it goes off, you may as well get up. Because now you're awake. Even if you don't have time for a long run, just go! You know what they say, any run is better than no run.

Make running a habit. Researchers say that it takes 6 weeks to develop a habit--good or bad. Put your runs on the calendar. Set aside a time to run. For me, I run in the morning, before I have time to think about it. I've been running so long that going for a run is like brushing my teeth or showering. I just do it. And I feel weird when I don't. And kind of gross, too.

How do you stay accountable? I'm linking this post up with DebRuns and Wednesday Word. Check out how the other bloggers stay accountable.

Sole sister virtual run recap

Standing in front of the door, thinking about all that rain...

I received a free entry to the Gone For A Run Sole Sister Virtual 7 mile run in exchange for this blog post. But all opinions are mine, of course!

I was pretty excited to run this virtual race. When I posted about it a few weeks ago, the response from my virtual sole sisters was amazing! So many of them signed up to do this one that it actually sold out. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out how to best fit a 7 mile run into my marathon training plan. You know Becky doesn't like me to mess with the plan. But on Saturday, I had a 5 miler on the plan before work, and I figured that 2 extra miles weren't going to hurt me.

My alarm went off at 5:30, and as I laid in bed thinking about getting up, I heard the rain pouring down. My heart sunk. Was I going to have to do this one on the treadmill? I hoped not, but I got up to make some coffee and check the weather. It didn't look good.

But I looked outside and it wasn't raining too hard, and I decided to suck it up and do the 7 outside. I put on a bright neon shirt for visibility and headed out the door. Immediately, I got wet. I ran the path through the park by my house and stepped in a big puddle. I felt the water soak into my shoes. Great. Only 6.9 more miles to go with wet feet. At least it was warm out, and my legs felt amazing. I ran from my house to the retention pond where I do all that speedwork.

When I got there, I realized I was THE ONLY person on the path. It reminded me of those solo runs in winter when I run there. It was a little eerie, but I made my way around. I got a side stitch (what is it with those lately?) around mile 3 and I concentrated on my breathing. I stopped at mile 4 for a drink of water and to take this picture. Too bad I didn't capture the lightning that would occasionally flash. The lightning didn't bother me, but every time I heard a thunderclap, it would start to pour again.

I was pretty happy about this run. Considering the conditions, it would have been easy to blow this run off. But since I was committed to running the race--all my sole sisters were out there doing it too--I had no choice but to run it. I'm so glad I did. I got my marathon pace too, 8:47 minutes/mile, which for a 7 mile run in the rain was a big confidence booster!

Here are some of my sole sisters and me!
I have to share that I have met all of these ladies through social media. I know I always say it, but what an amazing community we have! I've linked to FB pages and blogs to those that have them! I am honored and thrilled to share their photos. Please check them out and show them the love!

Me

Jennifer

Lorelei

MaryBeth from Tutus and Tennies. We'll be meeting next March when I head back to run the Sarasota Half Marathon!

Jennifer from See Mom Run 13 point 1! I'll be meeting her in real life at the Chicago marathon in October!

Sweet Katie and her daughters from Sole Sister Katie

Misty from Misty Runs NJ

Paria from Mom On the Runsanity. Check out her beautiful posts on her blog...

Smitha from Running with SD Mom

Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin

Holly from HoHoRuns, my partner in crime with That Time of the Month. and her sister. I get to meet her in October at Chicago!

Joni

Karen from Running Over the Hill

Kimberly from Kooky Runner

Liz from Bitchinrunner

This was the best virtual run yet! I think this should be an annual event. There were so many of us out there, getting it done! "Sisters are doin' it for themselves"!...

Would you do this one if it was offered again?

Marathon Training Week 6: Don't Stop Believin'

I may have been guilty of singing along while on the run...just sayin'....

So after my epic struggle to get my runs done last week, I took Monday to regroup. I was off work, and I spent some time catching up on the blogs. After reading a few, I soon learned that I wasn't alone in my struggles last week. There were a lot of defeated runners. And some with answers. As it turns out, this is all part of the process:

Ashley at Running With Skissors wrote a post titled "The Battle Between I CAN'T and I CAN". She said it, I didn't, so no burpees were involved. Just some wisdom and a "doh" knock to the forehead for me. Hello, marathon training!

Laura at This Runner's Recipes wrote about Cumulative Fatigue. I had never heard of this before, but apparently bodybuilders use this concept all the time. As do devotees of the Hanson Training Method. And, apparently, my coach. Mile 20? Bring it on....

So, with all that in mind, how did week 6 go down?

Monday was a scheduled rest day. I decided to take another yoga class. Best.Idea.Ever. Before class, the instructor, Megan, talked a lot about staying in the present moment. She told us that a person has between 50,000 and 80,000 random thoughts per day, and that 80% of those thoughts are negative. This was an aha moment for me! I have been working hard on staying positive even when I'm struggling with a run. For this yoga class, I set an intention to stay present. Staying focused is not an easy process for me, particularly in a balance pose. We did a few of them today. She also did some great calf, achilles, and foot stretches. My heel was so much happier at the end of this class.

King dancer. Natarajasana. Quad stretch. Balance. Day 1 of #7daystretch #liveinprana

Tuesday: I had a 6 miler on the plan. At marathon pace. When I headed out, the temperature was a runner's dream...60 degrees. And I took full advantage of it on light legs. I'm participating in a yoga challenge this week, Prana's #7daystretch, and I felt so good that I stopped at mile 4 to do upward bow. Yep. It was one of those runs that made start to believe...

Upward facing bow. Day 2 of #7daystretch. The cement was really hard, btw.

Wednesday: I do yoga on Wednesdays, but I had to go into work early for a meeting, and so I couldn't make it to the studio for a class. No worries, since I did 3 yoga classes in the past week. I pulled out one of my favorite videos, SeaWheeze2014, and worked out all the kinks.

Trikonasana. Day 3 #7day yoga challenge. Inspired by that triangular shaped tree behind me. Cheesy, right?

Thursday: I had speedwork, 2 mile repeats x3, on the plan. I hadn't done these since last summer, and as always, I wasn't quite sure how to pace my first outing with this distance. I decided to shoot for an 8:10/mile pace and see what happened. I couldn't have been happier with the outcome. Again, the temperature was a favorable 60 degrees when I started, and my legs felt light. First 2 mile split was 16:01. It started to warm up, but I still felt great, and the other two splits were 16:08 and an astonishing 15:58 for the last. Clearly, I was thrilled. I so needed this to go well, and I couldn't have been happier. Oh and by the way...no heel pain. At all. That's a huge win! Oh, one more thing. I hit 800 miles for the year! That made me jump for joy! Really!

After that, I went to see Becky for CrossFit. She was all about the lunges today. Ouch. Two sets of 3 different lunges. First set was lunges carrying 20# kettlebells. Followed by GHD situps. Next set, I had my nemesis, that 50# so called "wreck bag" on my back. I never knew that the bag had a name until recently, but hey, if the shoe fits...anyways, Becky wanted me to "clean" the sack up to my shoulders, but I just couldn't do it. But I didn't tell her that I couldn't, for fear that she would make me do burpees! I was frustrated about my inability to clean the sack, but she told me that I could be creative, and I did get the sack up there, albeit awkwardly and very uncrossfit-like. I did lunges with the wreck bag on my shoulders. Followed by atomic situps. For my last 2 sets, I did lunges holding a plate overhead, followed by leg lifts. Holy hamstrings.

Me and the wreck bag. I was wrecked after this one.

At the end we did sidesteps and monster walks with the resistance band. Becky did them with me, which was kind of fun. She was thrilled about my speedwork, and once again reminded me:

Trust the Plan!

Friday: Rest day. I have to share that I was incredibly sore from Thursday's CrossFit session. As a matter of fact, the soreness progressed as that day went on. I'm lucky I have a job that keeps me on my feet because if I had to sit for any length of time, I would have gotten stuck in the chair. When I got home from work, I did foam rolling, which was nearly brought me to tears. It hurt like a mother... But I knew I had a 7 mile run on Saturday, and that wasn't going to happen if I didn't loosen up my muscles.

Saturday: I woke up to the sound of pouring rain, but I was committed to running my 7 mile virtual run. Becky had 5 miles on the plan, but I figured that 2 extra miles wasn't a big deal. I'll recap this run on Tuesday in a separate blog post, but I will share that I'm really glad I did that foam rolling the night before. I was still pretty sore, but managed to run it at marathon pace. My legs felt pretty good. But it never stopped raining, and I was soaked when I got home.

I was the only person at the pond today.

Sunday: Still sore, I was really happy to have a bike ride on the plan this week. Although it is done raining, the weather is still gloomy. The temp was about 68 degrees with 80% humidity. I rode out to the forest preserve for a 30 mile loop. Besides being sore, I also struggled a little bit with the humidity and decided not to push my pace. This was my "long run" and I would have done the same thing had I been running. There were a lot of runners on the bike paths this morning and I was a little annoyed by 2 groups that would not move over to let me pass until I repeated "on your left" quite forcefully (and somewhat rudely) multiple times. What the hell, people? I'm one of you... I wasn't feeling very zen-like, having to do that. But once I got past them and was able to open it up a bit, my mood lifted. I stopped to take my final #7daystretch pose, which was all about being zen.

I don't normally stop for yoga mudra in the middle of a ride, but there was plenty of inspiration along the path. 

So, as corny as it seems, I picked Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as my theme song for the week. Because I really felt like maybe things are starting to fall into place. It was a great week of training. I hit all my paces and my legs felt good. I'm excited again!

How was your week? Are things starting to make sense? Sticking to the plan? Ever had muscle soreness that gets worse as the day goes on? Has your foam roller ever made you cry?

I'm linking this post with HoHoRuns and MissSippiPiddlin for their weekly wrap!

Runfessions for August

Once again it's time for runfessions, that monthly chance to 'fess up, to do your 'splainin...Marcia at Marcia's Healthy Slice hosts this link up where bloggers bare all. It feels good. And there's no penance. Try it, you'll like it!

Anyways, on with the runfessions!

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This isn't too far from my skill level.

This mama can't dance. Or carioca. Becky has me warm up before CrossFit with a variety of exercises, including hamstring kicks, skips, side steps, and yes, carioca. Which I cannot do. She has shown me a few times and I just can't get it. I was talking about this to my youngest son, who apparently can carioca, since that move is used at football practice. He looked at me incredulously. "You can't do that?" he said. And I lost a lot of points on the cool mom scale. That was until I made those amazing peanut butter protein cookies last week. Those cookies put me back on the charts.

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Speaking of being a bad mom, I just got back from a mission to Target. School started this week, and I don't know how it is at the high schools your kids go to, but it isn't until the first or second day of school that the teachers at ours give a list of things they want the kids to purchase. So off I went to pick up binders and folders. I was stunned to find all the shelves bare. No folders. No binders except for these crazy Yoobi ones. I didn't think the boys would like them, and clearly no one else did because that is all that were left. Anyways, I found a few binders that will have to do. At least they were better than the Justin Bieber folders I bought last year. Hey, it's the price you pay for making mom pick out your school supplies, right? School supply shopping was fun when the boys were little, but you know what? I'm over it.

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I needed this guy.

Last week, I almost killed my blog. Seriously. I thought my blog was a goner after trying to add a "print" button to my HTML code. I put a recipe in a post, and wanted my readers to be able to print it easily. I've added code before without a problems, so I added the code for the print button, but the blog went crazy. It looked like a web page from the 1980s. I actually started to sweat. I tried not to panic. I tried not to cry. I sent a message to the Blogger help forum (and I've never heard back from them). I had no idea I was so attached to my blog. I didn't know what to do but I couldn't go to bed, leaving my blog looking so ghetto. So I went back to square one, reformatting the whole thing. I started from scratch with the layout. As I played with the layout, I was happy to see that all my posts were saved. All my badges were there. I continued to dig, and I found my Chicago Marathon background. I fixed my blog. All by myself. It looks a little different, but it was time for a cleanup anyways. Holy you know what! I'll probably continue to tweak things but for now, I'm breathing a sigh of relief that everything is still there. But it will be a while before I insert any code into the HTML.

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Last year, I wrote a post about running etiquette, which included sharing the running path. Last week, while I was doing speed work, there was an asshole walker who felt the need to "toe the line". Mr. Path Hog walked right down the center of the path on the dividing line and would not move. On my first pass, I was forced into oncoming bike traffic in order to avoid him. On my second pass, I pulled out my secret passive aggressive weapon. Since I run with my hands open, it isn't hard to access the business fingers. Which I did. I don't know if he noticed but it made me feel better. After I passed him, I realized that he was the same dude who did this to me last year. Guess he feels like he owns the path. You know, taxpayer and all. Don't even get me started on Speed Racer. Old dude rides his bike like the path is his own personal Bikebahn? Cyclebahn? Or according to Google translate, Fahrrad Autobahn. The posted speed limit is 8 mph, but you can tell he's riding his own Tour de Lake Arlington. All while chewing gum. Cooler than cool. No helmet, of course. For sure his hard head would protect his pea sized brain. But I bet he wears a cup. Safety first! And he hugs the middle line too. Can't we all just get along?

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I'm going to finally confess admit that yes, I have an injury. Denial is a powerful force. I've been ignoring it, and now it's speaking quite loudly to me. My old friend, plantar fasciitis, is back. When the heel pain first started, a few weeks ago, I pulled out my PF sleeve, and began doing all the work to try to keep it at bay. But after Saturday's long run, I can no longer keep it a secret. As I like to joke, all the cool kids have PF these days. But it's no joke. It hurts. The funny thing is, once I get running and it gets warmed up, it doesn't bother me. Which apparently is a good thing. I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing, and hope that I can get through the next 6 weeks of marathon training. If you have any magical powers, please direct them to my left heel.

Got any runfessions to share? How was back to school shopping for you? Any problems sharing the running path?

Ambitious

Who me? 

Ambitious?

Driven?

Determined?

Energetic?

Bossy?

I've been called all of these things. My motto is go hard or go home. It's how I live my life. I never take no for an answer. It's all part of the Type A++ personality that I've been gifted with. For better or for worse, I've learned to live with it. I never do anything half assed. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. Right?

It's not always easy being such a perfectionist. When I fall, I fall hard. I tend to sabotage my best intentions. Sometimes I overreach. Sometimes I'm not realistic about my expectations--for myself, and sometimes for others.

I tend to get disappointed when people around me don't work as hard as I do. One of the medical assistants I work with just does the bare minimum that is expected of him. If you want him to do anything extra, you have to ask him. There's no initiative. That's hard for me to understand. I've been told that I have to "let it go" when it comes to my expectations for this guy.

But as hard as I can be on other people, I'm ten times harder on myself. Look at that long run I did on Saturday. I stopped several times--the portapotty, the side stitch, the iPhone glitch. And yet I finished with a respectable average pace time. Sure, I would have loved to run the whole thing without stopping. But really? Bottom line...it was a good run.

The struggle is real. I went back and read last year's blog post for week 5 of marathon training and got a reality check. I'm doing better this year than I was last year. A few bad runs does not ruin a marathon.

I need to get a grip on my ambition for this race. I know what I can do. It's time for me to step back and let all the training do what it is supposed to do. Yeah, I'm ambitious. I'm determined. But I'm not going to ruin this for myself. It's time to accept where I'm at. Trust the plan. It's a good one.

And what happens if I don't meet my goal? Oh, sure, I'll be disappointed. But it will still be a good run. I'll remind myself that I gave my all.  Because more important than hitting the goal is the knowledge that I tried my best.

Do you set high goals for yourself? And what happens when you don't meet your goals?

I'm really glad for these Wednesday Word prompts. Although Deb doesn't pick them specifically for me, the words always seem to fit what I'm thinking. Don't forget to check out her post and see what the other bloggers are saying!