5 Weeks Out

OK OK you caught me - I am posting this with less than a week and a half left till the race - EEK! Since this thing is party for me as it is for you readers - I am thinking about this as roughly how I felt with 5 weeks out. I jotted some things down I just never made it to actually posting them.

With 5 weeks out I developed what I am calling my theory of quarters (I know engineer came up with a theory on training is super surprising right?!) Any workout I do I mentally end up breaking into quarters. Take a 16 mile run - I always think about is 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, and 13-16. The first quarter (1-4) is always the easiest (minus getting out the door). Once I hit that 4 mile mark I start thinking to myself - hey I am halfway! ....to halfway... The next quarter (5-8) I sort of find my rhythym and it isn't too bad - plus at the end of it is that halfway milestone! Then comes the dreaded third quarter (9-12). My energy levels are always at a low point since I am more than halfway done but the finish is nowhere in sight. If I am on a treadmill this is even harder since when I am running outside I can at least tell myself "just get back home." Then after all sorts of mind games and tricks and determination - I find myself in the fourth quarter (13-16). Here I start to perk up since the finish line feels like it is in reach. Home isn't so far away now!

This same thinking goes on in my head for longer swim workouts and all my bikes and runs. What I just recently realized though, was it was also happening in training. The past few weeks I was sort of struggling with training in the "third quarter." Now that I am in that fourth quarter, I can see the finish line (well in this case I can see the end of training which is really the starting line of the race). This is only amplified by the face that I have a trip to Belize coming up next week and there is some tapering in my future! So here is to making it to the fourth quarter!