The mental game

It might seem like running is primarily a physical activity, and I guess if all you wanted to do was go out and run, it would be.  But when you add in racing or improving or anything like that, the mental component becomes much more important.  It can be hard to keep going when you're in the middle of a race, or you're not feeling great, or you don't feel like running any more.  But part of succeeding in this sport is finding a way to get beyond that.

I think that one of the problems that I have been experiencing over the past little while (apart from the physical ailments) is the idea that I keep repeating the same training plan over and over with no end in sight.  This is probably because that is essentially what I have been doing since around last June (!).  I did change the actual plans but the principles remained the same for each.

A few days ago, I realized that actually, I was embarking on the last six weeks of my half-marathon plans (I'm lying to myself, of course, because I am doing another one in June, but sometimes mental toughness develops from lying to yourself).  Acknowledging that there is an end point has been very encouraging.  Today, for instance, I also realized that I am 25% of my way through this plan.  A quarter!  While this means that there is still 75% to go (less encouraging), it is a good way of getting myself to go out and run.  I'm doing fine with this plan so far.  I can keep it up for another 4.5 weeks.

I tried skipping again yesterday.  It's still hard.

Two cities, two scenic runs

Yesterday wound up being a bit hectic as I sought to make the earlier train rather than the later train (okay, actually there are trains that leave every hour from Hamburg to Cologne, but I still wanted to make the one that left earlier than the next one....if that makes sense).  So today is another 2-4-1, as well as some looking ahead at the next week.

Hamburg: Alster Lake

Actually not the part of the lake that I ran around, but still part of the same lake.

Hamburg has a huge, artificial (created by a dam) lake in the middle of it called the Alster.  As you can probably imagine, this is a favorite place to run, particularly in the other part of the Alster that is not shown in this photograph (fewer buildings).  I think that I saw more runners there than I have, total, over the past month.  It was a three-mile run, and while it could have been a bit nicer because it was spitting rain, overall I cannot complain.  Okay, one mild complaint: to get to the Alster, you need to run down a hill.  This is not the complaint.  It's on the way back when you have to run up the hill that is not so nice.  But I did survive.

People also row in the Alster, which was nice to see while I was running, but served as a helpful reminder of how slow you run versus how fast you can row:

The better mode of transportation.

Also, I had to wait at red lights for annoying amounts of time.  My favorite was the light at 2.99 miles of my 3-mile run.  *sigh*  I waited, then ran across the intersection, just to feel like I had completed my goal for the day.

Cologne: The Rhine

Before I describe today's run, you need some background information.  Cologne's major monument is the Dom, a cathedral in the middle of the city:

I know that you have no sense of how tall this is from this photo, but let me assure you, it is tall.

For some reason, while visiting the Dom (Cathedral) this morning, I had the urge to climb up the tower to get a good view of the Rhine.  There are 509 steps:

Do not do this if you get vertigo easily.

I can assure you that 509 stone steps are pretty much worse than any hill I have encountered, except possibly some in Pittsburgh.  I could feel my legs and they were somewhat spastic after the climb.  This was a bit disconcerting because instead of going running this morning, I chose to go to the hotel-provided breakfast (incidentally, it was a feast and definitely worth attending.  Then I burned it off climbing up the cathedral steps).  I was worried that my stair-climbing would affect my run, and I think that it did a bit because I was stiff for the first mile or so.  But then things straightened out and since it was a 5-mile run, I had plenty of time to recover.

I decided to run along the Rhine because hey, there is a huge, major river, and why wouldn't you run next to it?

The Rhine.  Photo taken by me, this morning, after climbing the 509 stairs.

Although it was somewhat congested to start, eventually the people thinned out and it was an extremely pleasant run.  I made it pretty far, to the point where I could see a green bridge in the distance with hills in the background.  Super scenic.  All in all, two great runs in two wonderful cities!

Running plan for the next week

I made two executive decisions today:

1) I'm going to run a 3-mile tomorrow.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, but that is a travel day and I don't want things to get too hectic.  At around 4 miles of today's 5-mile run, I asked myself how I was feeling and I feel well enough to do three miles tomorrow.  For some variety, I will go the other way along the Rhine, in a northishly direction.

2) Next Sunday will be five miles in Florida.  Boo!  I've decided to chop that up into two runs: one 3-miler in the morning and one 2-miler later.  This way I might not die.  We will see.

Figuring out a plan

Yesterday, I sat down and made a plan that should take me from now until the Oak Tree Half Marathon on Labor Day.  It's almost 6 months, so almost half the year.  And that seems positive.  This has definitely not been my best year for running thus far and it's consoling to know that not all is in vain.

I'm going to stick with the FTL plan for a few more weeks, then transition to a 5-day-a-week plan, and finish up with the half-marathon plan, which is 12 weeks.  It looks relatively doable.  Some conflicts will likely come up; for instance, I will be flying to Germany, which will knock me out, but it's okay.  Getting off track once or twice is not the worst thing.

Today I did my 'F' run, with another pyramid.  I thought that it was going to be awful because the temperature was 86F.  However, it really wasn't as bad as I expected.  No idea why.  Let's hope this keeps up.