It's all in my head...

‎"Fear is probably the thing that limits performance more than anything - the fear of not doing well, of what people will say. You've got to acknowledge those fears, then release them." -Mark Allen

I saw this quote on Facebook today via Active.com. It is so true. The fear of failure, of not doing well is what gets me too often. I don't race. But I do have expectations of msyelf and I have to let them go some times. I used to tell my kids, "Perfect is boring". I need to embrace that. I think the fear of of not doing well (I wasn't) in the Philly half is what got to me most. It's a mental game and lost that one.

BUT it was just a race; one day out of many in the year and the rest of my life. I sitll have to take what I learned in the philly half and use it to my advantage the rest of the season. I do have to pay more attention to my training. And train better. But I don't have to be so hard on myself about one race. I tried to make that my message to the group today. Truth be told I was talking to/for myself as much as for them.

Today's run was great. Not quite awesome but really really good. I planned on 18 ad I finished 18. Originally, I planned to do 10 and then another 8. By the time I got to five, Jeannie, Helen, and Mark were with me. Helen said they were going out to 6 first to make the second trip shorter. That sounded like a good idea so off I went with them.

It was also nice to see where the trail went after Ridge ave. I've never been that far. Up to the 5,  I was doing 1 mile and a walk break. I felt good. With Helen, Mark and Jeannie we did 2.5 and 1's which I was quite happy to do knowing that I still had 13 miles to go. I like the shorter intervals and it would probably be better to do them from the start but my brain isn't on board with that yet. I'm thinking about doing it seriously from the beginning for the 21 miler though if I have someone to go out with (since I run naked - no watch).

At 6 Jeannie and I turned around , Helen and Mark kept going. Helen had 20 on the schedule for today so they were going to go to 7 and turn around. Jeannie  and I continued with a 2.5 and 1 run/walk ratio. We took two extended walk breaks but other than that we pretty much stuck with the plan.

I took gu at 4 mile intervals and endurolytes a mile before each gu. That seemed to work well. I did not have any dizziness or that feeling of straining heart pump that I've had in the past on hot humid days.

Helen Kristie and I went out again for 6 more. It wasn't easy. My feet and lower legs really hurt toward the end. But my attitude was much better than in the half last week. And that made all the difference.