August 2008 Archives

I received a link to this preview and was asked to post it. The film is about Kelly Sotherton the British Heptathlete in a Nikelab to prove her belief in herself.

I really believe in believing. If you think you can you will, if you think you can't you won't.

I bet Simon Whitfield believed.

In other news. While I was busy working yesterday I came across this website. It's funny how something can suddenly inspire you. Although, nutrition seems to be the buzz word at the moment. G, N and J are all eating healthy. We had a talk from a naturopath, on Saturday before our run. She explained why we feel tired, what is missing from our diets and what we shouldn't have in it, sugar, evil. I see and hear all this, I agree with it, but I need something to make me go, yeah. For some strange reason this site did it for me.

Maybe, it's because they live in SoCal, are beautiful and healthy and seem like a fun couple I would like to hang with. Whatever the reason, it made me go shopping, and cooking!

Here's the results ...

Mexican soup (handy to have in the fridge for after a run)

Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

Dinner, Chicken Taco and salad (to-die-for)

Sometimes I feel the world is against me. Yes, I know most of the time it is my own doing.

Like my stomach issues on todays run. Totally self inflected. I know spicy thai food does not work before a long run. I also love it. The love won. I indulged in way too much, heavy on the chilli, and it all came back to haunt me at mile 2 and then mile 9. Besides for these minor inconveniences, mile 1 - 13 of my 16 miler were great. Then I bonked and had to drag my sorry ass back.

Sore legs, I take drugs, tired, I sleep. Lack of energy I have to rethink, replan my nutrition.

I headed to the grocery store and loaded up on a wonderful array of colourful healthy foods. Including a piece of salmon for dinner.

After marinading in citrus the salmon was cooked to perfection on the bbq.

I took it off the grill, put it on a plate on the side shelf. As I bent down to turn off the gas (I have a fear of it blowing up) I thought, that's not a safe place to leave it. So I stood up, hit the shelf with my shoulder and watched, helplessly, as my salmon went airbourn. The plate hit the balcony railing and the salmon went over. Splat.

... on the bright side the chocolate that followed my plate of asparagus was delicious!

I ran an 8k trail race yesterday. It was a really good run, I was happy with my time, not a pr, but I blame the 27 lbs of water I was carrying in my shoes, shorts, top, bra and hat. It pissed down with rain the entire race.

Afterwards I had a conversation with our coach about the race. He asked an interesting question.

"When you race, do you always give it everything you got?"

He went on to explain that during a race he is in pain the entire time, lungs burning, basically an exertion level just below puking.

Hmmmm .... let me just think about that for the time it took france to touch the wall after the americans in the 4x100 relay.

"NO"

There are races I have trained for and felt that pain, met my goal, set a pr and danced my happy dance (once my legs were functioning again).

I definitely don't do that every race. Take yesterday's race. I ran harder than a training run, or tempo run, but not full out taste the lining of your lungs. His question made me wonder why? Would I be better if I pushed it, gave it everything or only signed up and trained for important races?

Here are my excuses reasons:

1. I am not training for this particular race/distance/terrain
2. I do the race because it forces me to work harder
3. It's a change from doing a long run
4. My friends are doing it, I do whatever they do or tell me to do, luckily the ground was soft at the bottom of the cliff, so I suffered no permanent damage

Do you try and pr at every race? Do you ever do a race just for fun?