Welcome to the Puke Party

#andI'llbringthecupcakes

During the 50th minute of our hour track session last night, those were the words uttered through our cold freezing heavy breathes (sounds like a 50 shades blurb, huh?!) before our last 400. 

(I had to partake in a cupcake tasting @ work for a retirement party just hours before meeting @ the track.  Big mistake, huge!  I held it all in, but just barely.  I really need to lay off the sugar these days.  :))

I invited several gals to join me in my track session last night, b/c misery loves company, right?  I had just come home from ~10 days in the HEAT and it was 20 degrees come track time, and well speed work is almost  always hard.  I needed reinforcements.  I had 2 gals take me up on the pain.  I think my FB invite read...

"Track session 5:45 @ LHS.  It will HURT, but you'll thank me after your next race..."
 

and I wonder why only 2 showed...;)  One is a BSC athlete, so that didn't surprise me and the other is on a quest for a BQ in the fall, again no surprises that she showed up either. 

It turned out to hurt, and hurt pretty bad, but when it was all said and done, we had run some of our fastest 200/400 splits...EVER.  That's pretty freakin cool!  The thoughts and feelings of pain were immediately replaced with "hell yeah's" and "holy cow, that was my fastest 400 ever".  Good times.

I told my athlete to take the intervals @ ~ 5" more than what we were doing as she hasn't been doing much speed work this winter.  But guess what?!  She ran right with us.  Yup, no bitchin, whining, nada.  BEASTMODE.  Super proud coach.  Check out these splits.  Talk about descending...she pretty much nailed it.

1:54.9
1:47.5
1:46.9
1:46.8
1:47.4
1:43.5
1:40.4

This is what she had to say in her comments in TP...

"That was hard but fun.  Thanks for sending out the invite.  Sometimes I forget the advantages of group workouts. Good stuff."

 

So the point of this blog is to get out of your comfort zone!  Just SHOW UP.  Seriously, try it.  It will totally pay off.  Pain is temporary....yes, it's scary, yes it hurts, yes it's uncomfortable...but listen, 9 x out of 10 it ISN'T as bad as you think it will be AND it ISN'T as painful as you may think (and if it is, it goes away pretty fast!).  While in the 'moment' imagine finishing your first marathon, or PR'ing that 1/2 distance you've been working so hard for, getting that BQ you want, nabbing that Kona slot, or whatever you are in this for!  Mentally imagery WORKS!  Your body CAN & WILL override the negative thoughts in your head.  Believe in it and take care of it...it WILL get you there if you just show up and do the work!