Committed

With a 4 year old and a 6 month old you sometimes don't get nearly enough sleep.  Last night the last time I looked at the clock was 12:30.  The only issue with that was that I wanted to get in a one hour run and that meant getting up and out the door by 5:00.  Luckily, Elliot woke me at 4:40, so I had plenty of time to get out the door by 5:00!  Other mornings I would have admittedly stayed in bed, but I've been reading The War of Art and one of the author's points is that the person who is truly dedicated to a task will show up even when they don't want to.  And, wanting to hold myself to a higher calling, I really don't want to give in to resistance and not train the way I know I need to.  The pro shows up and does the work, knowing that work done today will feed the bigger calling, which for me is doing well in the Half-Ironman.

Today's weather was a far cry from last week and I actually had to bundle up to keep me warm for the 20 degree run.  Once I got warmed up it was a really nice run.  I forgot about how tired I was and just settled into the dark silence of the morning.  There were a few people out and I even got passed by one runner, but I left my ego aside and kept the pace that would maintain an aerobic heart rate zone for the entire hour that I ran (my ego is also telling me to not share that this runner was also female and a good deal older than me from what I could tell).   If you want to see the route I took, click here.

One of my prevailing thoughts was about what works for improved performance.  There are so many theories out there and so many different methods that have all been tested and have merit.  Part of me wondered what would work best for my body since I've had good results with a lot of different regimens.  As I posted before I'm training in my aerobic zone under the tutelage of Mark Allen in order to build my aerobic base and to hopefully get to where I'm running a fast pace with a low heart rate.  This method requires a fair amount of time to show whether or not it works, so part of me is terrified of spending all this time on the wrong plan.  But, I'm committed to it and am doing what I can to have patience with myself and my runs.  I will be having one interval session a week, so we'll see if that calms my nerves a bit.

Has anyone out there dealt with this?  What training techniques have had the best results for you with endurance races?