Week 11.

So, yeah... are you bored of this shit yet or what?

Well, here I am. In the heart of my training. Physically, I know that when I toe the line on March 10, I'll be prepared. But, what about mentally?

You see, this speed thing, this goal thing, this having faith in my abilities thing is all new to me. I can't tell you how many times I've lined up at a race, with a goal in mind, only to be in the middle of the race and the thoughts drift from "I can do this!" to "ohhhh.. it's okay. I don't have to do this today, there's always another race."

All my speedwork is conveniently done on the race course. And I've started spending time trying to visualize and simulate race day. Everytime my foot crosses the little orange spray painted "6" on the side of the pavement, I try to psych myself up. Knowing that that's likely to be a scary point of the race for me. Right in the middle. At the point of no return, no excuses. The point where I usually find myself trying to come up with some excuse to slow down and be more comfortable. I try to think about getting to that moment on race day and pushing through it. Telling myself that I can do it, I've trained to do it.

I've never trained this well for a race before. Any race. And I just hope that the preparation and the true confidence gained from that will keep my thoughts from sabotaging my legs on race day.