Moving Ahead by Stepping Back

We are having the weirdest winter we've had in awhile. Sunday blizzard, and today in the 50's and sunny. I'm not complaining, just noting.

Last time I wrote, I was pretty frustrated. It's hard when something so irrational takes away from something you normally enjoy so much. I had decided by the end of last week that I would slow down, and be patient with myself. The process of training for a triathlon has brought many things to the surface, and my lack of patience for myself is huge.

I know I'm my own worst critic, but never have I realized how hard I push myself. My overall goal is to improve overall, but my specific goal is to run faster. I've been doing all of the advance workouts since we started training in Dec. Right now I can run 10+ min mile, depending on the overall mileage and my energy level.

Tuesday the Scott announced the workouts - basic 4 miles, advance @ 5 1/2. Fine. An endurance run, I can do that, but then he added that to do the advance you needed to run a 9 minute mile or better. "WAIT," I can't run that fast I thought. "He can't be serious," I thought.

So, I went up to him to ask if he was serious, and he was. After talking for a few minutes, he said that I could do the advanced. OK. I completely respect and believe that the coaches know what they are talking about, and that they are trying to keep us injury free. And one would think that with my new mantra of patience that I would say OK I'll do the basic. But of course, I didn't.

I did do the basic workout, but only because I needed to use the bathroom and figured that set me back in time. So, I set out on the basic run at a higher pace than you should run for an endurance workout. I was determined to get my latest timing. Now understand the last thing I want to do is injure myself, but I so want to be faster that I pushed.

I finished at a 10m13s/mile pace. I did the same run on New Year's at a 10m55s/mile pace. It is improvement, but I thought it should have been better. I couldn't let it go. I even talked it over with Ken, another coach. I won't go into detail about what was said, but the resounding sentiment was PATIENCE.

So, last night I got into the pool with the team, and worked on patience and form. I moved myself to a slower lane, so I wasn't tempted to go faster and not concentrate on form. Having patience for myself is going to be a bigger struggle than I thought it would.