Friday, October 17, 2008
Friday
Today is cold down pouring rain complete with thunder and lightening. I ran a soaking wet 3 miles on the track. 200/ 400/400 at goal pace. I drove part of the course last night- it looks hilly, maybe hillier than I thought. With today's weather my mind isn't in a good place... I'm sort of dreading a repeat of Denver. It's going to be freaking COLD in the morning- 34 degrees is the forecast- and if the weather men here are similar to the one's in Denver then their forecast for dry and partly sunny surely means wet and raining. I came out here with Ben and Jo stayed at home. There's a bit of added stress without my amazing, supportive wife. I was up from 3am this morning as Ben woke up restless from not being at home. I brought him to bed with me and he wiggled from 3am until about 6am which I can't sleep through like Jo can. Yesterday we were up at 4am to catch our flight so over the last 2 days I've gotten ~11 hours of sleep total and I'm sure tonight will be worse. All this just chops inches off of the legs of my confidence. Finding the mentality to ignore less than ideal conditions and simply run what should not be a difficult pace is not my strong point. I can feel the creeping doubts start to pry their way in to my head.. yuck.
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I was running with some guy not too long ago on this trail not far from my house. We were inching up the pace as we discussed the spiritual views of a well known IM champion. I said I was going to back off, relax a bit on the pace because I was a bit tired, beat up from the day before.
The response I got was, "So what if you are tired? So what?"
You can't control the weather. You can't control a toddler son who wakes you up in the middle of the night. You can't control where hills are. So what? It is what you will do with it.
Tim ... you are fit. You are trained. You have put in miles. You have done hard work. You can run through f*cking brick walls, including the ones you put up in your head.
When life deals you Kryptonite Superman, just become Frank Castle instead.
I am cheering for you man.
So attack this beyotch in reverse.
Now you have plenty of excuses against you. Just think about the reward and the feeling of accomplishment when you can hit your goals anyway!
Go for it. We all believe in you.
CONQUER DESPITE!
You're thinking too much.
You can't control the weather, why worry about it.
You are a talented runner, why worry about it.
I'm not sure what kind of importance your putting into this race.. LV is the "A" race so if you're using this as a measuring stick, don't put very much importance on the value. Since you seem to have put yourself into such a somewhat high stress situation, this is the perfect opportunity, from a mental standpoint, to see what works to overcome these obsticles, soooo that if you were to encounter some stressfull situation in Vegas, you'll be prepared. If you treat the race as a pure learning experience, then what's to lose? Leave you're worries behind Tim! You'll gonna nail this!
"Finding the mentality to ignore less than ideal conditions and simply run what should not be a difficult pace is not my strong point."
Realizing that, you're halfway there, right?
Don't worry about sleep, this is your test race.
Cold weather ios not an issue when racing and you know it.
Do your best and you will be satisfied. It is as simple as that.
Enjoy!
uli
good luck this weekend!
Take some of that new found mental strenght that you found that is going to help you finish the race and not shut down at the end and direct it twoards the weather. The weather should be the easy part to prepare for extra shirt and a trash bag at the start, tie the shirt on your waist when you get hot, put it on when you get cold. Anyway good luck.
PS I like the music on your blog, I have been clicking on your blog just to have some music while I am working regardless of if you have a new post or not.
I re-read your passage from today and thought these quotes might help. My client wrote them on my blog yesterday and I think they may provide a little positive light on how your feeling. Remember man, you have some SERIOUS talent! I wish I could run half as well as you do.
So here are the quotes:
Self-awareness
"As simple as it sounds, we must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given."
-Mary Lou Retton
It's these simple things that we need to remember. And if we can remember them every day, and apply them to our lives, then we thrive! We do know what the best choices are for us. We do know what our talents are. When we are self-aware it is natural for us to proceed keeping these things in mind. -Lissa Coffey
Stay positive! Carpe Diem.
Hi!
From my little experience: to sleep more or less time the 2 days before the marathon (within reasonable limits :)), and to have colder weather than expected, should not hinder your performance more than a handful of minutes (a handful is 5 minutes :)).
Negative thinking and stress may be worst.
so please try to think that you are doing what you like, and that you trained well for that.
cheers
Tim.... I am sure you will do great. You have trained so hard and from what I can read your mind is starting to play games on you.
From some of your prior post you had already identified that this mind games have been an issue in that past. I am sure that knowing this and fighting past those thoughts you will have an amazing race.
I'll be thinking of you this weekend. Good luck and have a great one !
I'll chat with you next week.
You're being tested, perfect scenario to see how you will handle adversity.
bj
The people that care about you aren't so hung up on your final time or splits. The people that care about you want what we all want out of ourselves; to give 100% and seize the opportunity that is right there in front of us.
As your kids get older and start participating in sports, you'll desire the same out of them; for them to just do their best and lay it out on the line. If they did that, you would be a proud father.
Likewise, if you go and lay it out on the line and give it 100%, then the people that care about you will be proud of you and happy for you because you'll be happy internally (as you'll feel fulfilled by the fact that you did your best resulting in personal pride).
For the people that care about you, your finishing time/splits don't really matter. For the people that only care about your finishing time/splits...well, they really don't matter?
Cheers and good luck.
P.S. Unleash holy hell just because you can if you put your mind to it.
just getting caught up on some blog reading and i must say that you need to quit your whining;) and premature excuse making...
if you were a princess(and maybe your are), and got to live in a bubble, and race day weather and plans and training, always happened perfectly, it really wouldn't be much fun(and i think that sport is called golf)!
sounds like you will be racing in conditions that you are used to training in...
as for the sleep thing, drink more coffee! i know a certain olympian in boulder who competed in the tri in beijing who normally co-sleeps with his TWO kids(crazy toddler and baby). you would think that he would have had the world's best race at the olympics since he got some solid sleep by himself. well he didn't...
don't change what you are used to!
now go run fast.
You said you could run sub 2:30 fatigued...and you had some rest this week. Kiss Ben in the morning and tell him you'll see him in 2:30 and then go out and kick your own ass!! F**k the cold and eat those hills for breakfast and if it rains use it to wash it all down!! This is a test...and only a test...so pass it! and Tim, have fun!!!!!
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