Tuesday I ran 3 miles easily. The first mile was the easiest (first time ever!). I hit the wall at lap 7 which was very unusual. I moved through it. J and I met some other runners at the track. J had run behind this guy on Monday. J knew this guy's partner from his old job so they talked for a while. We found out that the guy and J ran at the same pace and the woman ran at my pace. We exchanged numbers and plan to run together soon.
Wednesday J and I tried a brick bike run. That was really hard. I was tired biking already so running was impossible. My legs felt like cement marshmallows. They were just exhausted. I could barely move them and as a result did not make it far before stopping. Once I stopped running to walk I could never really start back up and stick with it. This time it was both physical and mental. Usually it is just mental. I was afraid of my knees. If I can't feel my legs I cannot feel where they step. I could step the wrong way and out they go. I did not like that fear at all. Some other triathletes made suggestions of stretching before the run and walking a bit on the run course until I can feel my legs. I resisted that initially because I wanted my transition time to be fast to make up for time lost. But my priority is finishing the tri and I have a better chance of doing so if I do rest my legs first.
Initially I was disappointed in that I lost faith in my body's ability. Then I asked what could I learn from this? I need to practice this as this is hard for everyone. I should have never stopped or at least broken it up into pieces asking myself do do one more lap and re-evaluate. I will persist until it happens.
So today we did a run only. I used some of my skills to get past the wall. I bargained to give it one more lap and of course I was fine and did a full 3. Neither easy nor difficult. My time was 12 min/mile.
Tomorrow is the practice tri with the team. I will need to use every tool I have to do this.
No comments:
Post a Comment