Mind over Matter

My training plan for this week is as follows:

Sunday - off
Monday- 40 minute run
Tuesday (today)- 50 minute run
Wednesday - 40 minute run (hills)
Thursday - 55 minute core strength class at my gym
Friday- off
Saturday- 6 mile run (it will be the 4th of July, so it is on-my-own instead of with the group)

Yesterday's 40 minute run felt great, despite all of my whining during the run (my friend incorporated what he called "ever-so-slight inclines" and I would describe as mini-mountains.)Surprisingly I am still looking forward to this afternoon's run. It has been really hot lately and we are usually running sometime between 4 and 6pm, so it is often in the 80's and 90's when we are out there. I have started to become mindful of hydration throughout the course of the day to prepare.

Some other things I have learned since jumping on this self-propelled roller coaster...

If you are a male reader, skip to #2.

1. In the battle of pad vs. tampon, the tampon wins. Running in a pad causes serious chafing of the upper inner thighs. If you are a male and are still reading, you can't say I didn't warn you. For some reason I thought that a pad would be better because what if the tampon slipped out from the jarring effect of the constant steps? That would be embarrassing. Also, probably impossible. I don't really know what I was thinking. Tampon it is. Another lesson learned the hard way.

2. Cotton is bad. Who knew? Running in cotton is like a death sentence. It traps in all the heat and sticks to your body, not allowing your skin to breathe. It holds moisture in instead of letting it out or drying at any point. Whatever that dry-fit or synthetic breathable material costs is more than worth it, and as an added bonus, you don't smell quite as bad when you're done running.

3. Your can actually be injured by your own sweat. Really! Yeah, it turns into what feels like sea salt on your skin. I went to rub sweat out of my eye and scratched the hell out of my face. I think it must dry on you and then it gets coarse, then it cuts you. I have changed my methodology in this area to a blotting approach.

4. Running really is the most apt metaphor for life, as trite as it may sound.

• One step at a time. It is impossible to take five steps or even two at once. You cannot fast-forward - no matter how badly you would like to, regardless of how strong of a runner you are or aren't, you have to pound out every single step.
• Balance. While you have to be mindful of the long-term goal (26.2 miles), you have to operate in the short-term. You cannot think about the fact that you have 22 miles to go when you are only on mile 4, if you did you would convince yourself it was impossible and would quit. However, you do have to run mile 4 at a pace that will allow your body to endure for another 22 miles.
• Mind over Matter. I have heard football players say this before, "If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Easier said than done, but also irrefutably true. Distance running is absolutely a triumph of the mind over the body. You can train your body to go the distance, but training the mind to believe that you can go the distance is the hard part.