Confidence Boost
This week Geoff Roes wrote an article for irunfar about the importance of confidence for getting faster. Confidence or lack thereof is often my own worst enemy. And I would totally agree with Geoff, sure I can do hill repeats and a whole host of other training elements to get faster, but when it comes down to it I'm really only going to get faster with confidence. This week was certainly all about increasing my confidence.
Last weekend Nick had asked me to come along on a run with the Runners Roost Mountain Running team. Needless to say I was a bit nervous all week anticipating Saturday's run. I was excited to meet some new runners and run with some good runners, but none-the-less quite nervous. I'm not a sponsored runner and I haven't run with a team of any sort since college so I just wasn't sure if I would be able to keep up. I know I run pretty equal to Nick (he beats me on the ups and I catch back up on the flats and downs) so I figured I would be okay, but you never know.
I ran my typical weekday runs decently and took it pretty easy on Friday so I would be fresh for Saturday. Saturday I met up with everyone at Pine. We all started together and headed up Buck Gulch. About a mile into the run I realized I was doing alright. I stayed steady on the climb up and found myself at the back of the front pack. Once we started heading down, I felt like I was holding back a bit even. Nick and I charged the big downhill and I heard one girl say "I don't even know how they do that!" I would have liked to get in a few more miles, but everyone was doing either 7.5 or 18+ so I just stuck with the 7.5 mile loop. I definitely felt good being able to keep up with the running team and it gave me loads of confidence going into the 2013 season. Plus I got to meet some cool people and its always fun to run in a group. Sunday I carried this new found confidence with me on a quick loop of Conifer Mountain. As I started up I felt great, like it was super easy. So I kept pushing it and kept feeling good, so I continued to push it. I'll have to double check my times, but I'm pretty sure I PRed that loop too! Certainly a good feeling to feel that good and be running this well in the pre-season. I'm certainly ahead of where I was running-wise last year.
My confidence boost also rolled over into James-land. Lately I've been worried that maybe I don't work with him enough or hard enough. Or if I do the right things. Well Monday we had PT and Anne was amazed at how much stronger James had gotten. She said she expects he will be sitting on his own within a month or so. I was so excited! But she also said she can tell I work with James more than most of the other parents. That she can see how I follow through with his exercises and what a big difference that makes for him! So yeah, all around this was a confidence boosting week!
Week January 28 - February 3
Miles Running: 29.1
Hours Running and Hiking: 6
Last weekend Nick had asked me to come along on a run with the Runners Roost Mountain Running team. Needless to say I was a bit nervous all week anticipating Saturday's run. I was excited to meet some new runners and run with some good runners, but none-the-less quite nervous. I'm not a sponsored runner and I haven't run with a team of any sort since college so I just wasn't sure if I would be able to keep up. I know I run pretty equal to Nick (he beats me on the ups and I catch back up on the flats and downs) so I figured I would be okay, but you never know.
I ran my typical weekday runs decently and took it pretty easy on Friday so I would be fresh for Saturday. Saturday I met up with everyone at Pine. We all started together and headed up Buck Gulch. About a mile into the run I realized I was doing alright. I stayed steady on the climb up and found myself at the back of the front pack. Once we started heading down, I felt like I was holding back a bit even. Nick and I charged the big downhill and I heard one girl say "I don't even know how they do that!" I would have liked to get in a few more miles, but everyone was doing either 7.5 or 18+ so I just stuck with the 7.5 mile loop. I definitely felt good being able to keep up with the running team and it gave me loads of confidence going into the 2013 season. Plus I got to meet some cool people and its always fun to run in a group. Sunday I carried this new found confidence with me on a quick loop of Conifer Mountain. As I started up I felt great, like it was super easy. So I kept pushing it and kept feeling good, so I continued to push it. I'll have to double check my times, but I'm pretty sure I PRed that loop too! Certainly a good feeling to feel that good and be running this well in the pre-season. I'm certainly ahead of where I was running-wise last year.
My confidence boost also rolled over into James-land. Lately I've been worried that maybe I don't work with him enough or hard enough. Or if I do the right things. Well Monday we had PT and Anne was amazed at how much stronger James had gotten. She said she expects he will be sitting on his own within a month or so. I was so excited! But she also said she can tell I work with James more than most of the other parents. That she can see how I follow through with his exercises and what a big difference that makes for him! So yeah, all around this was a confidence boosting week!
Week January 28 - February 3
Miles Running: 29.1
Hours Running and Hiking: 6
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