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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Looking back

Sometimes when I have a particularly good workout on a particularly nice day I start to think about how "easy" it is. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm not pushing it, or working hard. It means that I can do it. It means that Sunday night thinking back over my workouts, I had no trouble running 20+ miles this weekend. In fact, I enjoyed it. It didn't seem "hard" and I looked forward to those longer runs. When I first started running I could do a couple of miles at a time. 5 miles was fairly long. Don't get me wrong, I was very proud of that with good reason, but things have changed slightly. Shifted in a different direction. Two years ago I did the Nike+ Women's Half Marathon (Oct) at home, in my neighborhood. That was my first flirtation with endurance. Then the following year I did the Lincoln Half Marathon in May, the Spirit of Racine Half Ironman (July), the Nike+ Women's Half Marathon (Oct) at home again, and the Marine Corps Full Marathon at the end of October. I took a couple of weeks off from running to recover from the marathon and then jumped right back into it. I did a 10 mile trail run in February and I am now looking towards the Lincoln Half again as well as B2B (a 2, 3, or 4 man relay in July) in MN. It just continues to amaze me how as I was finishing up my 10 miler yesterday I wasn't even beat. Yay.

The other time I think of it is when I am swimming Master's. I started out loving the water but really not knowing anything about competitive swimming. I couldn't flip turn, I didn't know a single drill, and I couldn't hardly understand swimming language. I seriously couldn't flip turn. So Thursday when I was in the pool swimming, doing lap after lap I was pretty amazed at my flip turns with streamline, a dolphin kick and then a big, strong pull. Made me grin ear to ear. All that time in the pool paid off, plus I have a pretty good swim buddy to help with the little technique pieces I'm missing as well as to keep me in check when I actually think I am starting to swim "fast".

It's just nice to think about without looking at times. I just feel stronger, faster, more athletic, and more fit. I am loving my workouts, both the tough and the easy ones. Just like it should be.

4 comments:

Benson said...

Amen.
Just for the love of the sport.

TRI-ROB said...

Man. I enjoyed reading this. Thanks KT! I'm really happy that things have come together so well for you!!!

Breathe...

Oly said...

Woof! Woof! Bark!

:P

Nebraska Knitter said...

Hey, where are you PT triathlete? I miss you entries. KT's Mama