Go Ape! run

RUN 1:35 and 8.3 miles

DC joined me and TV for this one in CCP. He hit his toe early in the run (early as in about 0.1 mi in!) and damn that bruise looked awful!

We loopty-looped the noodly trails in upper CCP. It was hot and steamy and I was for whatever reason anxious to get done. My mind kept saying "It's only 10 miles" so I didn't take it terribly seriously. I didn't tape the feets, brought the wrong Cascadia's (and the ones without the insoles!), and didn't bring the Camelbak. In the end I was thirsty, underfed, and blistered on both feet. The Cascadia 8.1's now have a bloody stain at the heel. What's one more stain?

We did a few repeats of the big hill at the very end. I think we named it Vascula hill? From that Killian article he saw on Friday.

For being "only" 8-some miles, this was a tiring run. And it felt WEIRD to be home by 11am.

Rule Development

This will be an post in draft version until finished.

I've decided on 8 rules, it's my favorite number. And it's two 3's face to face. And 3 is my most favorite number. And I couldn't limit myself to just 3 rules.

Another rule: Bee Positive! You'll be more bees with honey, as they say. Smile, enjoy what you're doing, and listen to the whisper of rain.

Lots of energy today, it was a day off! All I have to get done is my BRR shoe shopping spree. :)

The Death of Doubt

RUN 6.6 in a squeak under 55 mins, for an 8:20 m/m pace

Hot, humid, and summery this morning with the group. It's summer baby!

I start most posts for the Thursday run with some whine about how "I didn't think I could do it! Then OMG I did it!". It's getting old.

Time for the Death of Doubt. Out with it. With the trash.

I want to wake up and KNOW I can do something. Maybe I can't do it at the pace I want. Maybe tomorrow would have been a better day. Maybe thinks won't go just my way. But I KNOW I can do it.

This isn't new, really. I learned it with IMWI 2010. When I signed up I doubted myself. After I'd finished I realized just how strong desire can be, and just how motivating. I've been living it ever since.

Well to be honest, not really living it fully. I still wake up with doubts. [A common one: Can I keep up with DC?]. It's NORMAL to have doubts. It's not healthy, however, to let them rule your life.

In the run, I began to wonder why I wanted to sign up for 3DoS 2014. I hesitate because I DOUBT that I can do it! OK, that's a great reason to sign up and TRY IT.

If you're guaranteed success, then there's little thrill.

Sometimes I think I could come up with a list of rules to live by. It sounds so silly, but they keep floating around. I could hone it down to say 8 rules that govern me. What would the Doubt one be?

It's NORMAL to have doubts. It's not healthy, however, to let them rule your life. Embrace doubt and squash it like a python. :)

The Whisper of...Sprinklers!

RUN 51 mins and 5.1 miles to work
BIKE 6.2 miles home from Big Shark

I took the wandering route in to work today, looping through TGP to catch some extra miles. There's a heat wave this week, and I don't see a need to burn myself out with a hot two-a-day. So the modification also includes bringing Puppy home from Big Shark, where he got new tires, cables, bar tap, and some work done in the annual maintenance.

I didn't want to run in, yet I wouldn't have not run in. My tummy was upset (probably ate too much for brekkie) and feeling queasy. Wanted to, but didn't want to. Sounds like mostly a mental problem! I felt better once I started, and even better yet when I came through 6 sprinklers on a street north of the Bot Garden! Sweet!

The day took a bad turn with news from TH--bike crash and injured. My gut twisted with this, I'm worried for her. Then I get details of JM's crash, more sadness. After seeing AK Monday with his arm in a sling, this now makes 3 peeps with major shoulder injuries. Is this the injury of the month or something?

"Can-you" speedwork

RUN: 8 miles in 1:12, trackwork

In addition to a few laps and the run to/from the track:
WU 10x100
MS1: 6x200 as 2x [2x200 "uptempo";1x200 "fresh"]
MS2: 3x [400@5K, walk 50, 350@5K, walk 50]
MS3: 6x200 as 2x [1x200 "uptempo"; 2x200 "fresh"]
CD 10x100

I only counted the 400 and 350 times: 1:36, 1:28, 1:35, 1:27, 1:35, 1:23.
That works out to just-under 6:30 m/m pace!

I'm lovin' these more complicated trackwork sessions! I don't know what to expect for the next set or for my pace. I'm still learning the paces, so to speak :)

With the extra day between my long run, this was feeling better than last Tuesday's speed work. My legs were quick, strong, and ready to fire. I surprised myself in these--I faded in the last 150m or so of the 400's but stayed steady and even said out loud that "I need to dig deeper" to find those last few meters of speed.

All said and done, T joked that maybe I'll find my calling in short distance. ha! I had in my head "can you, can you, can you?" with the dog, hence the title. YES I CAN.

This was refreshing! With each lap, we saw a little more sun on the horizon. GORGEOUS morning. Love it.

The Fall Of Rain, explained

The name of this blog, the quote on my RoadID, and my inspiration the past few years have come from this quote. Time to 'splain myself. This is as close to biblical/religious I'll get. In some translations, it reads "whisper of rain" instead of "fall of rain". Obviously, I prefer the former.

And Iluvatar spoke to Ulmo, and said: “Seest thou not how here in this little realm in the Deeps of Time Melkor hath made war upon they province? He hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not destroyed the beauty of the fountains, nor of my clear pools. Behold the snow, and the cunning work of frost! Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music of the sea. Behold rather the height and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists; and listen to the fall of rain upon the earth! And in these clouds thou art drawn nearer to Manwe, thy friend, whom thou lovest.”

Then Ulmo answered: “Truly, Water is become now fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain.”

Very briefly, Iluvatar was the "God" in Tolkien's world, and Ulmo the Ainur god of water. They were referring to Melkor, the evil Ainur "fallen angel" of Middle Earth. Tolkien fans often ponder why Iluvatar didn't remove Melkor, who was destroying the world the Ainur created. But the Silmarillion says that the Ainur can't create anything that doesn't ultimately come from Iluvator, so anything that goes against Iluvatar's desires will only enhance the creation of Iluvatar's designs.

In the above example, the Silmarillion explains that in freezing water Melkor created snowflakes; in trying to burn water he created clouds and rain. In the end, amidst the storms of fire and ice, something more beautiful was created. At first Ulmo did not appreciate that the desire to destroy something could lead to creations heretofore unimagined.

And why does this fit for me? For me, the challenge of triathlon is to always push myself to higher limits and find the edge. Sometimes it hurts to get there, psychologically and physiologically. Sometimes weather, luck, or injuries conspire against me. Yet in all the suffering, pain, fatigue, disappointments, losses...there is always something to be learned and appreciated. And when I come out the other side of these pains, I look back and see how much I've grown from the experience.

There is always something positive you can find, though I admit sometimes you really have to look for it. Hot day? Great--it's summer and the hours of daylight are the longest. Out in the heat and not enjoying it--heat acclimation training! Suffering the heat and not feeling so good--you found a weakness to work on. About to die--I'll bet it was a pretty sunrise.

So when it's hurting, or even when it's wonderful, I'll stop and listen. To my breathing, my footfalls, my heart beat, and the whisper of rain upon the earth.

MiTi is 363 days away!

Last run of the big weekends

RUN 5.2 miles in 59 mins

I can't believe I went to this run. I can't believe I doubted myself. And I can't believe it felt so good in the end.

RM and I ran QP with Daisy :) My goal was to not hurt or get hurt in doing so. Once this run was done, it's taper time! So just get through this!

We took an easy pace and I walked most all the uphills. My form suffered on them and it just wasn't worth it. I didn't hurt in any specific way, mostly just a tired soreness. Why did I doubt this, after so many other back-to-back runs, and after the Redman full to sprint weekend last year?! I can do this!

And at the end--I yelled out: "I DID IT!"

Bring on the taper. Bring on race specific packing and thinking. Bring on the MT50.