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Road trip day #6: mohonk - MY BROTHERS. running with a guy.

August 8, 2011 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: cloudy, cool compared the what i'm used to, really nice.

Comments:
Ran with my oldest brother Joel today. Its never worked out before - me running with him - but today was different. My head was screwed on right. I was ready for a little competition. I wasn't fragile or sensitive, not struggling for confidence as I was when I suppose from coming out of such rough seasons. Today, the competition wasn't a knock at my confidence. Today, it was exciting.

I forgot what it was like to run with a guy. With a guy, it's always more of a competition, even if unconsciously, or if in a fun way. With a guy, you don't have to worry about holding a conversation - you just run (in fact, it's probably more awk to hold a conversation than to hold silence). With a guy, its less work. Just you and the sport (and the competition of course). (this is just a generalization from my own experience)
I feel like my old self again, and I'm not gunna let anyone, or my own self-doubt, take that away from me again. This is my season. I'm back.

notes on the actual run: we ran thru the resort trails in the mountains. not like this week-ends calm and peace type of beauty, but nonetheless, beautiful. my brother hasn't been training too much lately, yet somehow he's still so fast. faster than me. gahh, boys! we got out fast, much faster than my pace, and held onto that pace for a good while. I've gotten a lot of mileage under my belt and did wanna start picking my pace up now, and that's certainly what happened! We had to have been going sub 8min mile pace - can't believe I actually have a good sense of time! but my sense of direction on the other hand...well, we got lost. i know my sense of direction has improved quite a bit, but only to a point. if my brother was having trouble, dunno what woulda happened if I was on my own. very hilly, so when we had to back track back up the hill, wasn't too happy. That's really when I started to lose my brother (about 30min in). there was no downhill to catch up with him, just hill after hill. About keeping up with him - I did a really got job the first part of the run. It was exciting to keep up with him, and if he got a little ahead, i could just pass him on the downhill. after about 20min, i did get ahead of me, but i caught up (unlike how like 30 min into the run my bro had to pause for me to catch up). anyway, i went race pace much of the run, and even when i got slower, that was sometimes my pace at some of those miserable races this past year. so considering i ran way longer than 3 miles, probably nearly twice that, i should be able to run way faster at a meet - and its not like i was even going close to all-out today. and that's what i need to learn from this. trust my instincts, and know that i can always do more than i think i can, that my legs can always go faster. i won't let my confidence down this year. when i think i'm done for it, when i think i'm way over my head, i'll just remember today, when i kept up with my way-faster brother, when i ran sub 8min miles the first half of the run, when i just let myself free down the hills, when i just kept going for the fun of it.
haven't gotten poison ivy yet! my brother's the expert, so he's the look-out.