COMMUTE to track n back, to work n back. about 13 miles
BE wanted to vote today, so we started at 6:30 instead of 6am. By then the sun was up and my sunglasses weren't enough. Needed a hat! I asked what was being voted on. Turns out it was City primary stuff. Not the big primary stuff, the battle going on in the background of all this between the old white guy who can't stay on topic versus the old white guy who can't remember it.
We decided on a 1-2-3-3-2-1 lap ladder with a 100 m walk rest interval. This didn't seem hard in thought, but by the end of the first 2 (half mile) I was thinking different.
The first lap was 1:59 and too fast. I settled into a 2:10/lap average. To my surprise I was able to hold it through the end, finishing the last quarter in 2:10. However the workout seemed much harder, physically and mentally. Sure, I'm gasping a bit for air and feeling heavy and slow. My cadence is 169-ish but feels ploddy. But round and round I go, holding steady.
I realized in the 2nd 3-lapper that I was focusing on those negative feelings - I need to slow down, I'm going to get injured, I'm not going to finish. Yet, as I said, round and round I go. So something was keeping me going.
The time on the Garmin. BE running ahead of me. My expectations of what I know I'm capable of. All kept me going. So I focused on that. My breath. My legs turning over. My shoulders as a counterweight. My eyes seeing the white line on brick-red track. The wind against me then with me, against me then with me. I focused instead on what I love about this -- and that's how I kept going. Lap after lap at a steady pushed-pace, not slowing and not quitting.
The time on the Garmin. BE running ahead of me. My expectations of what I know I'm capable of. All kept me going. So I focused on that. My breath. My legs turning over. My shoulders as a counterweight. My eyes seeing the white line on brick-red track. The wind against me then with me, against me then with me. I focused instead on what I love about this -- and that's how I kept going. Lap after lap at a steady pushed-pace, not slowing and not quitting.
When I mentioned to BE that the 2nd 3-lap felt better for having my mind on the run instead of what else I think about, he said "oh yes, associate instead of dissociate". So practical.
In the subsequent 2-lapper, I thought about how I could derive a chemical equation for the associate rate and dissociation rate (rate? what is the metric?) and the arrows and energy values -- but after a 100m my mind went back to the run. Where it was supposed to be.
Felt awesome!
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