Making Progress

I'm learning more about my training program every week. First, I learned that if I want to maintain a base to grow from, I need to keep working at it. Secondly, I learned that it takes a lot of commitment and work to break through time barriers; probably need to start training with a group. Third, and this one is pretty important, is that I learned that it was PRETTY DARN COLD OUTSIDE today. I put on 12 miles today with pretty decent time (9:35 per mile), given that it was a balmy 0 degrees out on the road. This is a longer distance pace that is marginally better than my half marathon pace this past summer; so I really need to find ways to take my 5-10k pace to the longer distances. I have a little under 4 months to get there. Otherwise, I am looking at approximately 4 hours for the Illinois race. While just finishing will be great and meet my overall goal, I would love the time to start with a 3.

I am also dealing with bumps in the road, so to speak, with training and life in general, as well. Snow storms kept weight lifting and running down to one day each, respectively, but I have a base built and did not lose too much, but did not gain anything, either. I have also been able to deal with disappointments in things not going my way, even when folks told me that they have done all the things that needed to be done. The crazy thing is that if I bring up the disappointments, I would normally get blamed for something that happened years ago. However, like in running, I have built a base in feeling good about myself and I don't end up going backwards. The way I look at it, if old things keep being brought up, that must mean that I am doing things right because there are no new things to blame me for. See, the glass IS HALF FULL (hopefully with Blind Pig's latest offering). Anyway, the mental attitude is the big thing for me that helps me keep at what I am trying to accomplish (as close to 3:30 as possible, training in the arctic cold and not letting failures by other folks bother me). I guess my only complaints are that my hips are a little sore and now I have to buy dress shirts since my old ones that still fit are missing. I am working on picking up the pace over longer distances and also using the running to meditate on the issues I face on a daily basis. More on privatized education later this week. Stay warm and don't shake too much, Northstate!