Mind Games

Earlier in the day I battle my powers of rationalization in jogging two miles without stopping, and now I'm rationalizing that I deserve some dangerous but delicious food at the buffet line... the salad lost...for today.


Sunday, Jun 29th, 2008 - Recovery Day. I been able to complete three more days
on the runner training plan for the Seafair Torchlight Parade Run since my last
blog posting. Four weeks to go!

Thursday the 27th was a 20 minute fast walk/jog. I opted to make it a 20 minute
jog, followed by a 15 minute walk. I was able to do 1.55 miles in the 20 minute
time period. I had to work late, so I ended doing it on a treadmill. Treadmills
just don't compare to the real thing, but it does provide a nice Ipod holder.

Friday was a 10 min fast walk followed by a one mile jog. Fast walk? I can do
that, and did, to the tune of 2.5 laps around the LHS track. Then the jog. I
took it easy, then followed the with another few laps walking to get two miles in
for the evening. I didn't want to do much more with the two mile run greeting me
as I wake up on Saturday morning. The lawn inside the track was freshly mowed,
and it really smelled good.

Saturday. - The two mile run. It seems like, in the past when I've trained,
usually my legs have more stamina than my lungs. Initially my lungs have been
behind, but today, during the second mile, my legs felt like stone. Legs and
lungs were usually the two components, as I saw it. Today, my brain made it a
trifecta. Yogi Berra, a catcher for the New York Yankees in the 50' & 60's was
known for his colorful quotes. I thought of this one as I was running: "Baseball
is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." I felt like runing was
ninety percent legs and the lungs, and the other half is mental. In my eight
lap run, as I finished lap three I thought, "Oh, man I've still got 5/8ths of
this run to go. I felt like the guy in one of those old cartoons who has the
devil talking in one ear and an angel talking in the other. "It's OK to quit,
you haven't run this far in fifteen years." "You can do it, just keep moving."
"It's OK if you quit after seven laps, that's almost two miles" "You don't want
to write about failure in your blog - it will disappoint your children" "Your
children don't care - they're happy you tried? "C'mon, suck it up."

Suck it up, I did, and completed the two miles in 27:24.

Later that day we met Andy and his family at the Old Country Buffet to celebrate
his completion of the State Board Medical Exam. It was a seven hour test. So
now we're at an all-you-can eat buffet, I'm hungry and I felt like I really
deserved to eat well having complete my two mile run. I think the angelic side
of my brain was worn out from the run, so the other side took over and treated me
with ham, grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, baked beans, and a piece of
chocolate cake with ice cream on top. Take that, brain! While my lungs, legs,
and brain were in recovery mode, my taste buds did quite fine holding up under
the challenge!