Yes, I am being as my husband would say, “so-oo-oo dramatic!” Of course, normally, it’s in a complaining way so I can get a back rub, but tonight it’s in a good way. My run didn’t start out that way however. I started screaming when I saw that after about 2 seconds, my iPod was on red, which is NEVER good thing. And then I saw that my Garmin watch was taking forever to find the satellites, even as the precious battery life of my iPod was draining… I just finally said, “ah, screw it, mom’s distance by car odometer will have to do for this evening” and took off. What was meant to be a somewhat regular run became a tempo run out of necessity. I am happy to say I ran 3 miles in 26:23, which is pretty good for me! I can honestly say I don’t remember running that distance that fast anytime since high school, and well, I’m 35, so you can do the math as to how long it’s been. Yay!
One of my goals for this year is to run a 5K under 26, so I think that after all the training I’ll be going through over the summer, that could finally be within my reach. Every time I looked at my pace during the first two miles, I saw the number “8” in the “minute” place on my watch. Wow! Even when I felt like I was dying (again I’m being on the dramatic side) during that last mile, for part of it, I was running something like 8:49! Woohoo! I really did want to stop at one point, then I remembered Alissa’s post on Mental Toughness, kept repeating that to myself for a bit, and then kept on going. I said to myself, “you big baby – you’ve been running for too long to allow yourself to stop here.” I call myself a big baby a lot – it helps to make me mad and keep on going. 🙂
I may be naive to say this, but I think the physical part I will be able to get through this summer, given time. It’s the mental part that is going to take a lot of work, to get rid of the self-doubts that start to creep in when I am getting tired. If there are any books that any of you have read and found particularly helpful in this aspect, or if there are any tricks you know of that can work, I’m all ears.
Middle-of-the-Pack Girl 
May 8, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I too had issues with my Garmin yesterday morning. I completed 5+, but after my run (I didn’t notice during my run because I can’t see the numbers in the dark, and even with the light on I need glasses to read) it registered only 4/10th’s. Also after my run I went in the sauna at the club, and after went over to the whirlpool, and sat on the edge with my feet in the water, wearing my IPod. Upon getting up I thought the ledge where my feet were was the bottom of the tub, it wasn’t, and I fell in submerging the IPod in water. I took it to work and sat it out all day, and low and behold it works!
Also regarding your comment about self-doubts, a good read is Perfect Weight by Jordan Rubin. Lots of encouragement about removing negative thoughts.
One last thing…in one of your entries you mentioned some positive thoughts you think of when you run, and one was to never stop during your run. When I feel the urge to do just that, I do remember what you wrote, and it pulls me past that mental block in order to continue.
May 8, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Thank you, Robert. I just requested the book from my public library so I hope it helps! I am glad to know that I can help others out because honestly, I get the feeling that you are a much more advanced runner than me.
Oh, and with my Garmin, I have found that usually I have to put it outside for a few minutes before I start, otherwise the distance part of it seems to be “asleep” for the first few minutes of my run. I’m glad to know yours survived the dip in the pool!
Hope you had a good few running days – my sister is also in the Midwest and said it was downpouring on Tuesday and Wednesday.
May 8, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Kudos on that 26’23 3 miles!! It’s a really good time, you have almost reached your 5k goal with that, you can probably beat the 5k in less than 26 in the next month!
I am currently reading The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer. It has a good training plan to run a marathon (which I’m not following because I’m not running a marathon this year), but they also talk a lot about the mental part of running; so far I’ve found it useful, used some of the tricks they talk about when running my half and it went pretty well. I haven’t finished it, so I can’t give a full review yet. I noticed that Running While Pathetic is also reading it because she has it listed in her blog, but I don’t know if she already finished it…
May 8, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Cool, thank you, I’ve requested that one too. I am sure my husband will start laughing when he sees more of the running self-help books start appearing around our house. Being a librarian, I can’t NOT do research!