A Little Talk and Mentally Back

After last Thursday disastrous long run I have been inside my head, well that is until my good friend Anthony stopped by the store on Friday and we talked about my run. He believes in me and told me that since I did hill repeats on Monday and then a few mile hill repeats on Tuesday that by Thursday my legs were feeling those tough workouts hence the reason for the tough run. He also told me that I am ready for Tahoe Rim Trail and his energy and excitement when he talked rubbed off on me.

After his little inspirational talk, I was feeling a lot better especially with a few weeks until the race. I have run the 50k course twice now and every time I finish it I swear I am never run it again, but as you can tell each time registration comes around I sign up and this year I went for the 50 miler. I guess I really wanted to challenge myself. Or I am crazy!

With knowing how tough the course is I have been really focused on developing power, with weekly hill workouts and my long runs have to been to Cool and back which gives me the nice climbs and descents.

This week after the pep talk from Anthony I asked him "should I do hills this week?" His response "YES!" So on Monday that is just I did. After work I ran over to "my hill" and completed the hill workout. It was tough going as it was pretty warm and the sun just baked me and my breathing was labored more so then usually. But you know what? I stuck it out and completed the workout all by myself. Of course in my head I was training with Trailmomma and I would push myself because she pushed me when we did our workouts together.

On Tuesday I decided to take the day off, as I thought my legs could use a bit of recovery. I believe that was the smartest move I have made this week thus far! Yesterday after work I headed out to the Parkway and did 2 sets of mile repeats before calling it a day up the nice long rolling hill to Beals. Of course the parkway was packed with families out on their bikes and a few times I literally had to jump into the bushes on the side of the trail because the bikes were crowding the shoulder. It was dangerous out there.

Overall my legs felt good, I kept a nice and steady pace and didn't stop when I reached the turnaround point, I would quickly turn around and head back down and once down I would turn and head back up. I am sure some people gave me questionable looks, because who does repeats on that hill in the middle of the day when the sun is beating down on you?

My legs this week are feeling more alive and I think that has something to do with my eating. I think last week I didn't eat enough and by Friday I was really depleted. Mentally I am checked back in because I think on the last long run on Thursday I checked out which made that run even more difficult. I have a nice four day weekend ahead and this weekend came at a very good time. I plan on enjoying some time with the family and good friends.