T-minus 23 days till race day, and counting!

It's Friday, which usually means I get the day off (unless I've skipped a few too many runs and am trying to jam another one in to the week). But I was a good girl this week and managed two out of three runs, which ain't half bad, considering the weather.

Although last night's weather was not as hairy as Wednesday's, once I got out on the roads I soon found out that the sidewalks were deceivingly slippery. What seemed like water running across the pavement was actually patches of really, really thin ice. And what seemed like ice, was ice.

Which made for an interesting run. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I had to adjust my gait to avoid slipping and face-planting (shortening my stride and running rigidly, tentatively), or if it was the fact that Tuesday I did a Yin:Yang yoga class immediately following my tempo run around the Commons, but for the first half of my 8k run my legs felt heavy and my calves achy. (Ok, I had also overdone it a bit on Tuesday's run, when I started out at 5:10 for what should have been a 5:30 pace.)

In any case, for whatever reason, I felt like I was tottering my way through much of the run last night. Partway through, I started hearing my negative self-talk creep in, wondering if I was feeling the pain because I haven't been training enough...was I ready to race...maybe I've put on a few too many pounds since the holidays...Ok, truth be told, after a long day at work I was mentally tired and dreading the run to begin with.

And then I remembered the lessons I'd learned from last year's training, which included trying to stop the negative self-talk. And I remembered that it's the tough runs, when you don't want to be out there, that help you on race day. Because if you can totter your way through an icy city when all you'd like to do is be home curled up under a blanket, then you can do this on race day, when there are friends and family lining the sidewalks to cheer you on.

I also reflected on a great article in Runner's World I'd just been reading the previous day, which said that the days when you don't want to go out for a run, because it's cold and icy out there, are exactly the days when you should get out there. Because when you finish that run, your endorphins will be flowing, and you'll feel a sense of accomplishment.

So I kept going, and I fought the urge to berate myself for running a minute slower than I would usually run (just more negative self-talk). The point of last night's icy run was to get out there, and do it.

Eventually, my gait loosened up a bit, and my legs forgot the ache. And when I got to my hubby's store, I did feel really happy that I'd chosen to go out and get 'er done.

How's your training for race day going? Stay safe and warm out there!

~ HRG