First Saturday

As promised, here are my "notes" from today's run with dad.

We started this morning at around 7:00 and I began telling dad about my runs during the week.  I confessed my 8 mile run on Thursday and noticed he really didn't say much (not that I expected a congratulations or a scolding..but I didn't even think he heard me...NO RESPONSE at all).  I told him about my run with Natasha and how we had around a 9 minute mile for just over 4 miles, to which he responded "be careful--you still have a long way ahead of you and running is a slow build".  I think he also said something about there being a very VERY thin line between being super prepared in October and December and hurting myself, too.  So I listened to him...but didn't really dissect what he told me.  I was feeling great, so the previous week couldn't have been too much, right?  WRONG!  

At about mile 6, dad indicated that we would take a different route than normal today, which sounded fine to me...I love new scenery.  Mile 9 greeted me with a long, steady...LOONNNGGG hill--it had to have been a half mile hill.  By the time we reached the top of the hill, I thought I was dying...really--I thought my lungs were caving in--which showed me that distance running really is mental at a certain point!  I contemplated stopping but then remembered that if I stopped, the 9 previous miles would have been worthless (in my opinion)...I don't give up that easy.  By mile 11 I was tired but still felt good...but I realized by the end of our run that I never recovered from the hill at mile 9.  It knocked me on my back.

When dad and I got back to the car, he--in his very gentle way--told me "like I said, you have a lot of stuff ahead of you with running...its a long road...don't be in such a hurry".  And I thought...HA..thanks dad...you proved your point.  I probably wouldn't have gotten what he told me had he not ran me in the ground at mile 9.  He told me on the way home that every run during the week should be in preparation for a long run--it shouldn't take away from it--at least not yet.  When I'm ready to start hills...we'll start hills...when I'm ready to do speed work...we'll start speed work...but I have to trust him to know what's best.  Agghhh dad...you would think I already learned that lesson but I guess some of us are a little hard-headed :-)

Does this remind anyone else of life?  How sometimes we try to just bulldoze through things...we're in a hurry to see results...we want to hurry and get to point "B"...and in doing so, we arrive at a problem...a "hill" very unprepared and tired.  Interesting, no?  Certainly something to think about.