meditation on my running

Feeling a bit uninspired. I don't know if it's nerves over the run this Sunday or the long and tense week at work (inventory, working an extra long day and on a Sunday).

Maybe it's the mulch. I know, I know, I'm obsessed with the stupid mulch, but I can't help it. When I'm out there digging and trying to plant or transplant and create something wonderful and all I see is the natural beauty of a unique garden space ruined. It's as bad as laying down concrete. Just let me get this off my chest okay? I put some lilies in the garden, feeding them into the ground so they would be amongst ferns and rock, tree roots and moss, but when we went out to garden Sunday night it had all been mulched with small holes left around my lilies. The shape of the garden has changed. I'm kind of giving up. Must be time for a holiday.

In a few days my family will be here in whoville and we'll be off to Tofino together. Sunday is the big day of the run. Sis and I are both nervous. It's her first half marathon and my first full marathon. Yikes! The taper week always unsettles me because I feel like I'm running so little that I'll never be able to go the full distance. Also my Achilles is acting up again. I felt it after my run tonight. I did have a good run though, I felt strong. My ankle is not swelling so I turned on the heating pad and kept the heat on it tonight. That helped a lot.

I've been reading a lot about the power of the mind in sport. There are many similarities between practicing yoga and running that I knew intuitively, but hadn't really thought about it. The book "In the Zone" does discuss the similarities between yogic practice and sports training and competing in so far as there is an experience beyond the physical that suggests the power of the mind enables one to continue their physical effort...well seemingly effortlessly.

It's exciting right now because I feel like I've just tapped into something unique about running and it seems all new to me again. I've spent so much time on the physical training and sticking to my schedule, nursing injuries, doing strength work, biking etc etc etc with very little time spent on training my mind to focus on the task ahead of me. That has come with practice and pushing myself to new limits in distance running. During the Van city half I remember having to shut out everything around me in order to focus on what I needed to do. I needed to finish the race. I needed to catch sight of that pace bunny. Not only did I do that, but I passed the pace bunny too! The long runs since then have taken all of my strength. Recently db observed, "you always give up at the end, just before we get home." I hadn't noticed, or I hadn't really thought about it. He was right. Since then, all of my runs have been about finishing and not giving up in that last km or two. Yes I'm tired and maybe I'm having a tough run, but sometimes it's great and I feel strong to the end. I think I need that to get me through this Sunday's marathon.

They're anticipating cool and wet weather. As long as the rain isn't pelting, I don't mind. I prefer it cool and overcast anyway. So...fingers crossed.