Mental stuff.

Workout: Monday - Cathe's Muscle Endurance workout (upper-body split and abs); Tuesday - 3 x 1 mile repeats at 10K pace.

I was supposed to do 4 mile repeats this morning, but my legs were tired in the warm up and the morning was muggy.  It mugged me of my energy, water, and salt as it made me sweat buckets.  It was one of those sweats where droplets fling themselves off your elbows and smack you in the head and neck region once every 3 nanoseconds or so.

But oh man--was it better than doing it on the damn treadmill. And I am still enthralled with my Garmin's magical feature of being able to program workouts within it so it can boss me around much more accurately than it used to do.  I bet it's tired of telling me to slow down, though.

I struggled mightily in that 3rd repeat.  Mentally it was all I could do to finish.  I tried to do the 4th repeat, but my mind and body were done.  I could blame it all on the heat, but I can also blame the fact that I actually ran those repeats at my 5K pace. not my 10K pace.  I could tell my legs were spent as I started that fourth repeat, and I decided to exercise caution so I wouldn't get injured.  For once.

One thought that I did have while struggling through that last hellish repeat (I was trying to think of things other than my suffering) was the habit I have of showing up to races and thinking, "Everyone here is faster/better/stronger/more fit than me.  They're all going to kick my ass."

Why the hell do I do that?  Those thoughts run through my head every single time I have a race.  It's not so loud at my shorter races, but at my duathlon Sunday that was THE primary thought I had as I stood off to the side of the transition area, waiting for the race to start, just hoping I wouldn't embarrass myself too badly on the course.  I know it's because duathlons are still new to me, and I don't really know what to expect when I show up.

Well, I know to expect that I will think everyone there is better than me.  I guess it just takes time and training and a lot more falling off my bike-and getting back on-to give me more confidence.