Friday, September 2, 2011

When you're not ready for a race. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Times they are a changing....

Wherever you are, you're probably seeing the first signs of fall.  Cooler nights, kids going back to school, etc.

Or if you live in Southern California, you might be seeing advertisements for fall clothes that will allow us to pretend things are changing here too.  The So. Cal. wardrobe consists of shorts and a hoodie year round.   The times I realize the most that weather actually exists in the rest of the country is when I watch the Today Show and Al Roker is all bundled up, broadcasting from New York.  Today Show weather man, you are my season indicator.

Something else indicates Fall and it involves these fine young men.




Oh hai football.  I've missed you!  

It is too bad Matt Saracen, Tim Riggins, and Vince Howard aren't coming back for another season.
Friday Night Lights may not be real (sadly), but who doesn't like a little college football (starting tomorrow!) on a Saturday mornin?

While these men are scrambling on the field tomorrow, I'll be running a 5k.  

I think....

I signed up for this 5k tomorrow as part of an active.com Schwaggle and it was like 12 bucks.  But I'm feeling mentally and physically off.  I think my offness is excusable since I ran a long relay / had major sleep deprivation from exhaustionville last week.  

I'm tempted to not show up.  Or at least to give myself permission to not finish if my time starts sucking.  Maybe if I go through the 2-mile in over 13:30 I can stop?  I hate posting sub-par times.  Give me permission to quit, damnit. 

I think my dreams of breaking 20 are all but impossible this week.

I know this is no way to approach a race.   "If you don't feel like finishing you don't have to...just allow yourself to suck!".  But...unless I get a deathly illness between now and tonight, I'll be gutting through this thing.  

What do you do when you're not feeling mentally or physically ready to race?  Do you scratch and not even show up?  Do you take it easier?  Do you do your best to prepare and run all-out anyways?

I know what Matt Saracen would do.   He'd give it his all, and then continue being completely awesome in every aspect of his life.

I'll let-cha know if I end up being able to run my race up to Friday Night Lights standards.  Hopefully, I can make coach proud.

15 comments:

  1. Loved Friday Night Lights! I'm a hockey gal myself (I'm Canadian, it happens) but I loved that show. I like football but I have to say I've never seen a college game before.

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  2. Lol. I'm in your same shoes. I just wrote about it maybe yesterday, but I have to be in peak condition to hit a 5k PR b/c my current time is close enough to 100% of my effort, so it's like I just don't want to run any 5ks right now b/c I know I won't get the PR!

    But if say I registered for one, I'd probably go for it. I never scratch unless I'm seriously injured. And I rarely start out easy and just stay there. I'm usually more of the crash and burn mentality...

    I'd say go for it, run on pace for as long as you can, and give yourself permission to ease up when you're done. I'd still say finish -- I think "easing up" will be mostly a mental relief for you and you won't really slow down that much, so you'll still post a solid time, and you'll have a good sense of how long you can hold the pace right now, feeling exactly the way you do tomorrow, w/ that weather, that course, etc. And if you do feel like completely stopping, I'd still say finish. So you walk the last mile, who cares? 5ks don't record your mile splits, so anyone looking at your time, if it's really slow, will assume you either ran it easy or were pacing someone else!

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  3. Football!!!!! I'm so excited!

    Do the race! For me, it seems like the races I'm so excited about and that I feel ready for are the ones I bonk. The ones where I don't want to go are the ones I do well at. Maybe the excitement stresses me out and zaps my energy...

    Good luck in the race!

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  4. Girlfriend suck it up and kick some freaking ass! If you haven't ran much since the relay whether you realize it or not your legs should be "fresh" and this could actually be a great opportunity!

    Channel your inner Saracen and kick some booty! You freaking got this girl!

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  5. I am so jealous of your weather! Damn.

    I agree with Rachelle! Suck it up and get out there! You will rock it, I know you will!

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  6. One morning my alarm went off for my ridiculously early run that could only be fit in then or I wouldn't get it that day and I was tired and grumpy and did NOT want to run... I don't know if I've ever not wanted to run quite so much... And as I sat there in bed contemplating whether it was worth it my husband rolled over and sleepily said, "go get 'em, champ."
    That was all it took. I was out the door and busting out my run with a passion... So find a way to mentally pump yourself up and GO GET ' EM, CHAMP!

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  7. I love your description of the So. California "uniform." My brother and sis-in-law live in Pasadena. She's a knitter and made him a wool fisherman's sweater that's absolutely gorgeous but that he can wear oh, like, two days there. I think he should give it to me. :^)

    I think you should run the race as a shake-out/pace exercise/progressive fast effort. Don't think about your sub-20 this time. Just run, and enjoy it for whatever it turns out to be.

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  8. The last one. And sometimes "your best" is sucky... and that really is OK.

    We can learn something from everything.

    I am trying to sound Yoda-ish there. Did I succeed?

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  9. haha...u crack me up. i'm not a football fan, i'm sorry, but u hit the whole CA wardrobe thing dead on.

    as for the race....umm, after ur crazy H2C experience there should be little wonder why ur legs are feeling more than a little banged up. if u do end up going into the race, here is my two cents: use it as a workout and go into knowing it's a workout. i like the idea of trying to do an uptempo 2 miler, but i think u should finish the entire race...just cuz mentally u don't want to get into the habit of DNF'ing. why don't u do this: use the first mile as just a steady warm-up thing, then make the last two miles fast. try to negative split the whole way so u end the fastest.

    regardless, have a great weekend! :)

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  10. run the race (PR or not) in honor of ur awesome friend who convinced u to start a blog and convinced u to start "training plans" (which probably helped u get ur current 5k PR :P) and who also can rarely run races and can't watch football either :D

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  11. oh and the same friend who hasn't been able to watch the last season of FNL (don't spoil it for meeeeeeeeeee)

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  12. also, gig'em aggies!

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  13. So I take it you went? Or are you watching football ;)

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  14. AMEN for football season! I hope you decided to run the 5k, although after your stellar performance with HTC I wouldn't blame you if you didn't go. I tell other people I'm running in a race to make myself go. If they come back and ask me how it went I feel way too guilty to tell them I didn't go. And I reward myself after with something awesome.

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