Patience

In many ways, year number two is going to be tougher for me than last year was. Last year, while I was physically beat for much of the winter due to the increased mileage, psychologically, I knew that if I could just somehow slog through the it, the rewards would be great. Also just being in unchartered territory with my yearly mileage gave me another boost and made me always want to press on.

However, this year will be run in the shadow of last year. I will constantly be comparing this years numbers to last years numbers. What I need to realize is that last year was a necessary step in getting to where I want to be. However, this year needs to be very different. Last year I focused solely on mileage for much of the year, only adding in some limited speedwork near the end. This year, I want to run faster more often. Will that come at the expense of mileage? I don't know. I know the one thing I can measure against from year to year will by my mileage. Something tells me the competitor in me won't allow myself to fall behind last year's mileage.

Which brings me to this year. I know that right now is the time to be patient. To build things up and get my body ready for the real training that is going to come in the months ahead. To trust the system. But that's not my nature. I want to pick up right where I left off and continue the training. Which probably explains why my hip, knee, and calf have all given me some sort of troubles in the past week. I know where I need to be, but I also know that I'm not there yet. I need to be patient if I want to reach my final destination.

Weekly mileage for last week was 52 miles. Again, things have just been crazy lately at home and at work, so to be honest, I'm not too dissapointed with getting even 52 miles in. On Friday we moved the biggest software release that I've ever been a part of into production, so with that, things should calm down at work for awhile. At home, the kids are all slowly recovering from their various colds and runny noses and even Ryan is starting to get a little closer to sleeping through the nights. You might even say things are back to normal, whatever that is.

Now it's time to refocus and move forward.