- Run 400 Meter "Sprints"
Today was the first day using my chosen mantra, and it seemed to come in handy. Starting first thing in the morning, I was up and cleaning my house in preparation for the cleaning people I was expecting at 9 am. As I walked constant circles around my house, my trigger reminded me to practice the psychological utterance almost every 5 minutes.
I did a great job cleaning, finally finishing the last steps of organizing my house that I started weeks early. I was soo pumped! I woke Jake at about 8:40 so he could get changed, and we were going to walk out the door for groceries once the cleaning people came.
... Then it was 9:30, and no cleaning people
... ... Then it was 10, and no cleaning people
... ... ... Finally, it was about 10:30, and I was getting too hungry to avoid the need for groceries anymore. We got up and left the organized house with no cleaning people inside.
Shopping with Jake was fun, we started in the produce section and decided there was nothing fresh we were interested in cooking or eating. We wandered up and down each aisle picking out soups or protein, cheese or salsa, Ramen or hot dog buns. Jake didn't mind that I like to sit and consider all the food options available, should I pick the raspberry yogurt or the blueberry tub? How much milk is necessary for the 3 boxes of Minion Mac-n-Cheese I bought? Which bag of tortilla chips should we buy (can't buy Scoops. I am still boycotting Frito Lays after the initial Taste of America Chips were never sold in the Midwest)?
By the time we were ready to check out, the grocery cart was brimming with everything needed to survive at least the rest of the week. I was famished in the check out line, and was slowly waiting for the bagging woman to help package our groceries. She looked like she was having a hard time standing her whole shift, so I moved the cart a little closer to help remove a few of the steps she was taking. Eventually she just gave up on moving, would put the bags full of food back on the conveyor belt for me or Jake to put in the cart. Well, full of food wasn't really accurate either, lots of the bags held 1 (ONE), single item. Serious, can't you tell I'm starving, speed it up!
One of the most memorable bagging experiences I've ever experienced. When it finally ended, and I finished sheepishly apologizing to the people behind me in line for taking so long to check out, we were ready to go to get our lunch. Subway had a buy one get one promotion, and Jake and I were going to make the most of this BOGOpportunity. Impeccable timing was on our side as we walked up to the store and were the 4th people in line at the counter. By the time we left at least 15 people were waiting for sandwiches and the line was out the door. The promotion crowd reminded me of a hospital Subway, specifically one in Seattle, just filled to the brim with doctors, staff, patients, and family.
I walked out the door feeling very accomplished with all of the mornings errands complete. I ate the first of 4 sandwich halves for lunch, and got back to the grueling task of studying more project management. Before I knew it, a few hours of studying passed, and it was time to run outside before nightfall. Jake said he'd come too, and I think he was excited to get off the couch for a while.
We started with a half mile warm up, easy enough. Then it was time to move on to our mile of quick intervals. As we came to the final sprint, I was sucking air pretty hard when Jake said, "Are we going all out on this last one?" Yes Jake, that has kind of been the expectation on all of these, but this last one specifically. For the first 3 sprints, Jake had been plodding along my snail pace, providing motivation from behind. This was confusing since I knew he was holding back quite a bit, but on the last sprint I made him take the lead. This is when I saw Jake speed away putting leagues between us on our final quarter mile.
Back to the theme of the week, motivation. While out on this run, I was modifying my slogan. At first I was just mentally repeating the mantra to push me forward a bit. During the second leg, I started cramping and began thinking about what I could do to shorten our already short workout. Instead of stopping though, I then toyed with adding another phrase to the mantra, a bit about pushing through the pain, breaking down the wall, getting better by working harder. All, super cliche really, but as I worked on changing this part I started feeling stronger during the next runs. It felt good to recognize a marked improvement, and I settled on the final phrase
Go out! Run well. Be an athlete and push to be better.
Even though Jake proudly blazed in front of me, I finished strong on my scale of measure. For the second time, I was pleased with today's achievement. We'll see what tomorrow brings in terms of recovery and cross training.
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