well, i am back on track for the marathon. i ran 3 miles today. however, it was the hardest 3 miles i have ran since i started. i thought this would be an easy day too. i always start off by stretching but i am starting to think i don't stretch enough. i stretch calves and hamstrings but when i first start off running my legs feel so stiff. usually this stiffness works itself out in 3-4 minutes but it didn't today. i felt stiff for most of the run except for a short downhill spot. however, i did finish the 3 miles.
another important thing i did today was that i measured the distances i was running. i marked points that were at 1/2 mile distances up to 5 miles. knowing that will help me figure how fast (or slow) i am running. the first 1.5 miles today took me exactly 15 minutes. somehow the second 1.5 miles took me just under 14 minutes. so the pace was right at what i have been running lately. tomorrow is a break day, which is good because i am on call tomorrow night. i think i might try to get in some upper body work.
i heard a biography report on a kenyan lady who won the boston marathon in the last couple of years. she works out 3 times a day 3 days a week and 2 times a day the other 4 days a week. the one thing that she said that stuck in my mind was "no one runs a marathon for the fun of it." true dat.
Vince Lombardi once said "there is more challenge in building than in maintaining." I think he missed the point a little. no matter where you are there is always a chance for building. maybe he was making the point that he had coached a team to several superbowl championships and was wanting to build a team from the bottom up. however, no matter what position we are in, no matter how great it appears to be, i believe it can always be better. also, i think that it is harder to make the best better than making the worst better. i mean think about it, how hard is it to improve if you are the worst? i think it is harder to make yourself better if you are the best (i am not saying this based on experience, just what i would think). the key is to never get comfortable with your performance, know it could always be better. now i am not saying to strive to be perfect. that would only make us all upset because we can never be perfect. just try to improve everything you do every time you do it. i know people could argue this point with me because there is a limit to how good we can do something. but i do think we should always try to reach that limit, and the push to make it a little better.
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