August 30, 2011
Rachel
Today's mileage: 3 miles
This morning routine is getting rough. I'm ready to take a break, as soon as my race is over. For me, though, the only time I have to exercise is in the morning before work, so even though I'm looking forward to a break, I know that after a couple weeks I will set a new goal for myself, and get back to those early mornings.
But this week, even though I'm tapering, I'm planning to get up early every day to work out or run so that I sleep well at night. This morning I dragged myself out of bed and to the track at my local high school. I was excited and anxious to try this patellar tendon strap (I traded in the bulky knee brace I originally bought).
I'm not sure if this thing did me any good, but in my mind I was hoping it would...so it did. I felt great this morning. No knee pain to speak of! I was able to get into a rhythm and felt awesome running.
And despite all the positive talking I've been doing here and elsewhere...this is really what I needed. I was still having so many lingering doubts and fears about my race on a painful knee. I think all I needed was one good run to get my confidence back where it needs to be and to be mentally prepared for the race on Monday. And now that I've got that one good run under my belt, I'm back to being excited and enthusiastic about things. It's amazing how easy it is to let negativity take over when it comes to a challenge you've never tackled before (at least for me).
I'm so focused on this race right now, that my entire outlook and attitude on life has changed now that I'm back to being confident about it. Yeah!
