Pushing Through

Have you ever had something that you have been dreading since the second you saw it or heard about it? Whether it's an assignment in school, a project at work or a specific workout, if it's big enough, it can become intimidating and make you question your own abilities. In any of the different realms of life I think it's important to challenge yourself once in awhile just to see what your really made of and I guess to kind of remind you that you're alive.
Tonight I had something like this in the form of a workout that I had been dreading since I first picked up the 'Jack Daniels Running Formula' book back on Memorial Day weekend and paged through the training plans. I was looking through the workouts, and while there are a lot of awful workouts in there, this one stuck out in my mind as one that just seemed absolutely awful. I'm not sure if it was because this workout was the first of the extremely tough workouts in Phase III of the training plan, or simply because of the sheer length of it. Needless to say, as today approached, I was more than a little intimidated by the thought of taking it on.
Luckily, it was a slow day at work today so I was able to prepare as well as possible for the evening workout, which was to look like this:
2 mile warmup
4 x 1 mile @ T-pace (5:59) w/1min rest
1 hour ez running (7:29 pace)
15-20 min Tempo run at T-pace
2 mile warmdown
Total: 18.5 - 19.25 miles

By the time I got to the Highline Canal Trail, the rolling gravel trail with marked mile posts that wanders through Denver's suburbs it was 5:30 and I figured I had maybe 2-2:10 of light left. So I changed things up a little and hit it. This is what I ended up doing:

2 mile warmup
5 x 1 mile - descending (6:02, 5:53, 5:43, 5:41, 5:39)
45min ez running (7:20-30 pace)
15 min Tempo run (2.5 miles - 6:10, 6:18, 3:09)
2 mile warmdown
Total: 17.5 miles

There were so many factors headed in to this workout, from the strain in my right calf, to the 16.5 miler that I had done 2 days before, to the fact that I would be doing this workout on my own yet again. As I finished the miles and moved into the easy run I was feeling amazing, and while I was pretty worn down by the final miles, I think this was a HUGE step forward in my confidence level and definitely served it's purpose. I'm ecstatic that I am running this well only halfway into the training plan and hopeful that I will continue to stay healthy and injury-free as the training continues. Hopefully if you've got a big challenge lying ahead, this will give you the motivation to know that you can definitely get through it, you probably just need to put your head down and do the work. Happy Training!