Where Do Lost Socks and Conditioning Go?

My partner in crime often gently mocks me because I have to buy socks at least once a month. I seriously do not know what the hell happens to them. Laundry hamper elves and dryer fairies must really be on a tight budget and love to run because even with my constant buying of socks it seems like I can never find more than two or three pairs....

This was just such the case when I went to don my running clothes this morning for a 3 mile run on my treadmill. When my run on Monday went well and I didn't have any tightness in my hip and my piriformis actually felt much better after running than it did before, I decided that I would see if I could run a little faster on my planned run for Wednesday and test my comfort level a little bit by picking up the pace. While I am glad that I did this run, I was mostly glad when it was finished. Even though I was running at a slow pace, I was struggling during the first two miles of this run. It was hard. Admittedly, I was under the weather with a stomach virus that kept me home and near to a bathroom yesterday, so that could have contributed to what felt like an utter lack of running ability. When I approached a 10min/mile pace, I felt like my heart and lungs were going to explode. And my legs felt tired. Oh, so tired.....

Long time readers will also remember that I have something of a love/hate relationship with the treadmill. When hip high drifts arrive, I'm sure that my passion for this machine will be rekindled, but after months of running outside, I find the treadmill to be challenging my mental conditioning as well. During the first mile, I really just wanted to quit and do this:

I know that my conditioning - mental and physical - from the summer and early fall is not going to come back overnight. I just find myself wishing that it would. Although I knew that my endurance was going to fall off when I got injured and took time off, I still find myself feeling a little bit surprised when a pace that felt really easy in the heat and humidity of the summer feels really difficult now. When I think about trying for a PR in a spring half-marathon, I realize just how much work I will need to do to rebuild a strong foundation of running to make that goal an attainable one.  

I'm curious to hear from other runners about this. How long can you go without running (or without running much) before you see a serious drop off in endurance and speed? What is your approach for getting it back? Also does anyone have a strategy for not losing socks?

Mental Mapping and Goals: Urban Wildland Half-Marathon

On Saturday I'll be running a half-marathon in the suburbs of Minneapolis.  I had a session with Cindra Kamphoff, PhD of the The Runner's Edge to discuss my goals for the race and strategies for achieving them earlier this week.  One of the things that I wanted to do was to create a sort of mental map of the race.  We talked about my pre-race strategy for hydration, nutrition, etc. Then Cindra asked me to talk about what I wanted to achieve at this half-marathon and urged me to set multiple goals for my race.  Essentially they are:

1. PR - this means beating a time of 2:14:32 and hopefully coming in under 2:13:59
2. Run the race progressively so that I have a negative split
3. Focus on remembering that I am a runner and believing that I can perform as I hope, running continuously except through water stops
4. Enjoy the experience and finish with a smile on my face

Cindra asked me to honestly rate my confidence level in accomplishing each of my goals on a scale of 1-10.  Since I rated all of them higher than a 7, she suggested that signified that I recognized them as achievable goals. We then spent some time discussing optimism and how to cultivate it in regards to running (and other areas of life). During our session, I took lots of notes.  Then I came home and created a sort of mental map. Inspired both by my session and AM's post about race mapping, I printed out a course map and then jotted down a number of notes to myself on it - reminders to start smart, use my mantras to push through challenging moments in the race, and to finish strong.  I tried to visualize how I might feel at certain points in the race and wrote down what I thought would be most helpful. For example, I've started out a few recent races too fast because I got caught up in the excitement of the start line, so I am reminding myself to start smart and remember my race strategy, to run the first miles conservatively so that I set myself up for a negative split and a strong finish.

I admit that I am little worried that race day might be humid.  Currently the forecast is calling for a high temp in the mid 80s (which I'll take!) and a chance of thunderstorms for Saturday. I can't control the weather, but I can control my hydration plan - I'm going to take my Camelbak, which I usually leave behind on race days and just rely on the water stops - and still take my best shot at running my best half-marathon yet!

What is your approach to setting goals for races? Have you ever mentally mapped out a race?

Sports Psychology and Mental Toughness

On Tuesday afternoon I had my first appointment with Dr. Cindra Kamphoff, a sport psychologist who has a practice  called The Runner's Edge.  Dr. Kamphoff helps runners reach their potential by developing their mental toughness.  During our first session, which lasted about 90 minutes, she asked me a number of questions about what was going well in my running, what wasn't going so well, how I saw myself (as related to my running) on both good days and bad days, and about my long-term and short-term running goals.  We also discussed mental roadblocks that I had been experiencing during my runs - both during training and during races - and began to discuss some of the strategies that I could use during my training to overcome them.

I tried to be very honest about some of the barriers I'd been coming up against and how negative thoughts and self-doubt have been impacting my running.  It's not that I slam into a wall in every run, but I do every couple of weeks.  I want to become more optimistic and confident as a runner.  Dr. Kamphoff and I walked through some of the feedback loops I've been experiencing and discussed ways to counter negative thoughts  and to reframe situations so that I have fewer self-doubts and more control over my thoughts and feelings.

For example, we talked about how I have a tendency to compare myself to other runners and get upset that I'm not faster or that I don't look a certain way and how that can sometimes tank a run for me.  She gave me some ideas for trying to reset my focus on positives and affirmatives, concentrating on how many miles I've run since becoming a runner, why I love to run, and telling myself that I am getting faster and that I will continue to get faster.

Toward the end of the session we prioritized the things that we would focus on in our next sessions, in particular visualization techniques and mentally mapping out races and runs so that I can get better at pushing through pain and fatigue and continue developing my self-confidence as a runner.  We'll be in email contact about once a week and we'll meet again about a week before my next half-marathon and sometime in late September/early October before the Chicago Marathon.

It was a great session, and I left the meeting feeling very excited about my goals, running, and working on being aware of my thoughts and reframing them.  I am feeling more and more confident that by continuing to work on my mental focus and by running with a local group a couple of times a week that I will PR at my half-marathon next month and that I will PR with a sub 5 hour time at the Chicago Marathon in October.