A little over 12 weeks to go till IM 70.3 National Harbor. I’m getting it in, following my training plan, learning a lot from my Coach (aka…mini-terr.or.ist). He came out to run with me today.
I asked to stop to try and adjust my sock (which apparently have wardrobe malfunctions too) because I was feeling a blister coming on. Well, my sock (which had lost it’s elasticity/shape) was bunching up and causing a nasty little blister to form. We stopped to make the adjustment and started running again. Coach asked me how it was feeling and I remarked that it will probably be nasty one by time we finish. Coach was all like “DA HELL NO! We are turning around. Take your shoe off, try it without the sock. NO! Still not working. HUMPH. Take your shoes off, lets run in the grass barefoot. You got a half marathon next week and a blister is NOT GONNA WORK!”
Crazy cakes. But it really did feel great to run barefoot. Takes some getting used to and I won’t be taking it up for really long runs, but something I will consider. Moving on. CONSIDER – you heard that right.
Coach made a point and it was my big takeaway for today which was I have been doing all the training & conditioning up to today and that doing a walk/run back to out car and only doing 7.5 miles vs 10 isn’t going to change anything between now and next Sat.
He said, “You are already ready for the race. Don’t let pushing through a workout and getting hurt take you out of a race you are already prepared for.”
Profound. To me.
We did intervals back to the car, ran into CassandraL and TerriT out on the trail (they were cycling and got in 22miles). Coach bought me an awesome veggie burger and we headed back home, where I did all the things he instructed me to do –like buy new socks – air out that hotspot on my foot – and relaxed the rest of the day.
Feeling good. 105 days to go!
I AM A TRIATHLETE! …and I will be an Ironman (at least half of one) too!
