Planning a run and running the plan

Tel Aviv 10 km

Last Thursday I had to undergo a dental operation that involved cutting open my gum cutting out two root canals that had somehow managed to impact into a sinus cavity and as a result I get getting infection and an abcess was growing , one and three quarters hours later I was out of the dentist with six stitches in my gum. So for the last week I have been unable to train and perhaps this was one of the hardest things was the fact that I could not train in any way for seven days, and I was planning to run the Tel Aviv Half Marathon this morning.

I decided that the best thing was to run the 10 km instead of the Half Marathon and that I would run with the 60 minute pacer so that I would not tax my body and treat today as a ease back into training rather than risk my recovery.

It is a interesting and different to run at a defined pace that is slower than you are capable of, I really started to enjoy the discipline of keeping myself in check and running at pace and the mental battle not to go faster, rather than race.

It has been a very frustrating week and I was feeling bad, when I left my friends who were all running the half I trudged to the start of the 10k, but learning to deal with these feelings is helping me change into what I hope is a better runner and athlete.

My time for the 10k 59:06 , a good well planned and paced race, so I took some comfort from the fact that i stuck to my plan and have not had in face or teeth pain post race

The Non Competitor

Have enjoyed training this week , racked up some good miles and yesterday was a fast solid track session , luckily for anyone who for some reason reads my inane ramblings, the blogger system for some sane reason refused to allow my Heart rate graph to be uploaded, so there you have been spared. The funny thing was running the track yesterday I reflected with another runner between gasps that when you run 800 splits they seem a long hard distance, yet when you run 3000 , 2000 then start 1000m repeats the distance beckons easy ... go figure but managed to keep pace at sub 4:40 for all km splits and last split was 4:30 , Couple of weeks to the Tel Aviv Half marathon, should be fun

Bevan Docherty - Heart of a Champion

Just watch this

Focusing on Changes

Running is an individual sport, you can run with friends or a group but they cannot be your arms legs or lungs. But they can and always be part of me.
I have struggled with many aspects of running and perhaps finally I have found that being competitive had made me the wrong runner. Time happens once and you cannot not turn it back but only look forward to the clock going forward.
Dwelling on times and competition does not make me a better runner/triathlete.
It is time know to start enjoying again each footstep, enjoy training and from time to time join friends for a race, run how I feel and at the end reflect on the day with a smile and knowing that I tried my best and nothing is more rewarding than sharing that with friends