mantras

Friday Updates

February 23, 2012 by Kristy 12 Comments

don’t think it, just run it
Thank you for all of your advice and support on my last post. Some of my favorite mantras…

Amanda: My mantra is something like, “I may feel this exact way during my marathon and so I’ll need to know how to fight through this feeling then. I should practice it now just in case.”

Kate: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.” -Yoda … this manta has gotten me through many a race / training workout. You either do it, or you don’t. It’s kind of “tough love” but that’s what works for me.

Cindi: Mantra for you to try: I can f*$#ing do this! I knew I could count on Cindi for a f-bomb mantra Winking smile

I think my sister summed it up best though – don’t think it, just run it. My thinking and analyzing takes over my running way too much. So, with this new attitude, I was excited for Thursday’s run. I wasn’t following my plan so I had 9 miles to do whatever I wanted (it had to be speedy stuff though). The result…adding in a 1 mile warm-up and cool-down…

8:12, 8:08, 8:12, 8:03, 8:07, 8:03, 8:13

Success! I barely looked at my Garmin, either. Just kinda went by feel.

hawk’s birthday
Our little bundle of fur turned 2 yesterday! Naturally, like people that need to have kids, we sang happy birthday and took pictures.

The day we got Hawk…

He makes us laugh every day, even when he chews his dog bed.

If you have a dog, do you “celebrate” its birthday? I doubt I’m the only one!

Have a great weekend!

Vortex of Doubt

February 22, 2012 by Kristy 25 Comments

After a particularly crappy speed session yesterday, I was doubting my ability to even run another 3:43 marathon in Boston, much less a sub-3:40. Don’t let 1 little run shake your confidence, right? I totally agree but it’s much beyond 1 run.

Since I started training for Boston, I haven’t made the huge gains in speed that I did in my last training cycle. And paces that were once easy feel a little bit more labored. My legs always feel good but my breathing is a little off.

Enter the vortex of doubt. It started creeping in around Week 2 and now has set up residence in my head (I can’t help but think of the Mucinex commercial where the mucus takes up residence in your lungs). I feel like doubt is snowballing out of control and taking me with it. Yep, that’s me.

With 5 1/2 weeks left of training before the taper, I’m making changes.

Where did my mental game go? I really worked on it last cycle but it seems to have fallen by the wayside. Ironically enough, my friend sent me this article written by Chrissie Wellington yesterday. She knows a thing or two about mental game
This is my 3rd training cycle in a row following the FIRST plan. Although I still believe it’s a great plan, my body may have adjusted and plateaued. I never really followed it to a T but in the next few weeks I’m going to diverge more from it and do my own thing (more tempo, hill repeats, and progression runs and less track work).
Rethink hitting the almighty 60 miles. I’m not sure why I’m so obsessed with hitting a certain number when I know (for marathon training) 55 miles per week is my sweet spot.
Remember to have fun. I am training for Boston!

54 days to go!

I need some new mantras. What’s your go-to mantra?

Lehigh Valley Marathon: Week 11 Recap

August 17, 2011 by Kristy 5 Comments

8/17/11
7 miles speed
*3 x 1600m with 400m rest interval between repeats – all done at 10K pace.

Quick update! Please, please vote for RTLR for CBS Philly’s Most Valuable Blogger. Voting is very easy – just 1 click and you’re done. You can vote once per day (don’t worry I’ll remind ya!). You can vote here or go to my home page and click on the badge. THANKS!

We are getting to the very end here, folks. Last week went very well, probably because it was a drop week and my legs felt rested.

MON: 6 easy
TUE: 7 speed (and my new found love for 10K pace!)
WED: 7 easy
THU: rest
FRI: 20 (#4 – pretty close to MP too!)
SAT: rest
SUN: 7 tempo

47 miles for the week!

Taper
I’m taking a different approach with my taper this cycle. I’m doing the traditional 3 week taper in terms of reducing my overall mileage but I’m doing a 2 week taper in terms of my last long run (22-miler). This week I hope to hit 55 miles (that will be my max for this cycle) but I’ll only be running 15 miles on Friday. Next week I’ll keep my mileage in the low to mid-40s but I’ll do a 22-miler. I think this is going to work out way better mentally for me. I hate the 3 week lag time between your 22-miler and the race. I always begin to doubt myself.

Question of the day: What’s your go-to mantra during a race? What are you most likely to repeat over and over again to finish strong? I’ve gotten much better but I used to battle negative thoughts all the time so I began to say “let go” (as in let go of the negativity). Sounds so silly but it really worked. I also like “if you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t”. So true!