Long, Hard and Far

Well, I am definitely over the hump. My fears that I was going to become a couch potato, inactive bum and blow back up to over 200+ pounds have finally begun to subside. I am definitely back into my training and eager to do more. I think part of the reason for my pleasure in training has a bit to do with my reading Christopher Bergland’s book “The Athletes Way” He takes a lot about creating a flow that has its origination from the cerebellum part of the brain. I am badly paraphrasing what he discusses, so you will just have to get the book to find out what he is talking about. Let’s just say that I am trying to think with a different part of my mind or at least in a different way when it comes to training. So far it has been working well. I am viewing each workout as a pleasurable experience and I am leaving myself wanting more. Today I ran a fantastic 7.4 miles in Prospect Park. I was with my friend Larry who wanted to stop after two loops. I wanted to go a third, but I decided that I was going to stop wanting more. This way I remain eager to get out there again. I don’t want to get burned out. I want to keep this feeling of anticipation and wanting more. I like wanting more. I like the feeling of still wanting to go longer, aching to see how far I can take it. I want to work myself back up to the point where I am running for hours and it feels like I’ve only gone for minutes. I want to get back to the point where I come home from a workout, completely spent and satisfied. I love the distance. I love the pain of it. I am not satisfied when I can’t take it long. I feel like I am not doing my best when I am unable to go long. For me it has always been about the endurance and how extreme the event/workout is. Speaking of extreme events, I am happy to report that I have once again won a lottery spot into the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I didn’t think I would get it and doing so, brings with it a measure of sadness. The event falls on the same day as the Eagleman Half Ironman; another event I was greatly looking forward to doing. I am supposed to go to that event with my friend Todd and I really want to go. However, getting into Alcatraz is so damn hard and it is such a unique and challenging race, that I don’t see how I can turn down the opportunity. I’ll have to reconcile this somehow.