Still plugging along

The Fall training schedule has come and gone and to my surprise it was actually really satisfying! We started out with simple 2 mile runs every other day and quickly progressed up to a 5K road race, a relay marathon, and with the winter weather upon us I am committing to three 3 miles weekday runs, and Sunday morning runs ranging from 6 to 8 miles plus swimming 2 nights per week (remember this is a Swim Bike Run event!). I am actually looking forward to this commitment. I have learned in the past few months that I am truly a competitive person. Some of you may have already known that, but I actually thought I was just a motivated person ... well truth be told, to be motivated I guess competition has to be a part of that. Though I do want to state ... I do NOT get upset when someone does better than me, I am quite impressed when they do and it actually pushes me harder because when I see how their hard work has paid off I want to feel that same sense of accomplishment. So, though I like to compete it really isn't competing against others ... it's just the rush of competition that gets me motivated. I have also found that I much prefer running in a group, I am a team player, I function much better having someone beside me ... maybe it's the socializing but it just feels so much better to run with someone. Though I do want to give myself credit, there have been a lot of solo runs and I do well and I get a lot of good thinking done during those times but I definitely know my best performances are when I am part of a group ..., I also realized that I thought going from 6 miles to 8 miles was going to be "no big deal" and ... well it actually is. I have been cruising along on my 5 mile runs and then jumped to 6 easily so the very next week I opted to try for a long hilly 8 mile run (keep in mind it was 6:45 a.m. on a blustery 20 degree New England Sunday morning -- with no signs of sun poking through the clouds! And I had maybe a glass or red wine too many on Saturday night!) Well at mile 5 my legs were screaming at me -- the quads were stiff, almost felt frozen ... so I chugged up a very long (but really beautiful) hill and met my fellow runners at the top, they started to bear left and I let them know this runner needed to bear right back towards my car. I did finish 7 miles that cold cold morning but it wasn't as I had thought, it was hard! So that is my next big challenge, progress from 6 miles to 7 miles and soon be able to cruise through 8 ... I will let you know when I get there.