The Day After Tomorrow

So I was right, the kitchen and laundry didn’t get done. We did get back late from the Tour of California. But the second day at the tour was less work and much more fun!

Monday was a crazy day at work and it was also my first day of hill training.

This season I vowed to actively pursue hill regular hill training. I made it over the hills last year in San Francisco. But I want to fly over the hills this year. I’m trying to cut a full hour off my finishing time this year. So being strong on the hills will really help that.

So after work Kris and I took Heather and drove 20 minutes or so to Point Sal. The wind was gusting like a tornado (it is always windy in Santa Maria. But some nights it gets really bad. This was one of those nights).

We got out of the car and the wind was not only gusty but FREEZING cold! I wanted to say, “Let’s do this another night.” But my schedule is tight. I’m not sure I’d be able to make it up this week.

Besides, I’m a firm believer in “Whatever doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger”. So, every time I train when it’s extra hard, I am increasing my mental strength and believe me, mental strength is more important than physical strength when running a marathon! Ask any marathoner and they’ll agree!

So we start up the trail and I turn back to look at Kris and ask, “Can I change my mind?”

He grinned, “Sure.” (He knew I wouldn’t change my mind).

So I take off jogging and I am freezing! The wind is blowing cold and hard right in my face. Ugh! But I knew I would warm up fast and I knew if I just got to the top of the first big switch back, I’d keep going. So I told myself that if I made it to the top of the first big switch back, I could stop and go home.

See, it’s all mental. All I had to do is make it to that one point and I knew I would finish the rest of the run.

And I did. I climbed and climbed. Or should I say I ran the steep parts and walked the flatter parts to catch my breath. But I pushed myself hard and started running again as soon as I got my breath back. I repeated this until my Nike+ said, “Half way point”. Yeah!!!! That’s when I got to turn around and run downhill!

I FLEW downhill! I was able to stay in control even though I really let the stop out! I was working almost as hard on the downhill trying to go as fast as I could and stay in control. It felt so good to run so fast! I rarely get to experience that feeling. I was really pleased how easy it was to stay controled and that my knees and feet didn’t feel like they were being pounded. Like on my bike, I kill on the downhill!!! :)

But I have a lot training to do yet to move past my ‘hill slug’ status! See you next week Pt. Sal. It was fun!