The great M.H. Alderson once said,

“If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average.”

The trouble is that I don’t know who the heck M.H. Alderson is/was, so my description of him/her as a great person should probably be taken with a grain of salt.  I’ll confess that I found that quote last night in preparation for not completing my first tempo run this morning.  Now, I’m sure that there are plenty of quotes that go along with that attitude, such as:

“Positive thinking will let you do anything better than negative thinking will.”

       -Zig Zigler

or this one:

“A man is but the product of his thoughts.  What he thinks, he becomes.”

       - Mahatma Gahndi

So, if I thought I couldn’t make it, did I become the guy who can’t make it?  Sort of.

Planned Workout

1 mile warmup

3 miles at 7:35 minute mile pace

1 mile cool down

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

2 miles at 7:35 pace

.25 miles walk interval

.75 miles at 7:35 pace

.9 miles cool down

Location: Treadmill at 2.0 degree incline.

Now, last night I told myself that if I could make it a mile and a half before taking a walk break, then I could be pretty happy with myself.  You see, this whole workout is based on a 5K time that I achieved way back in October.

“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

       - Benjamin Franklin

Screw you, Ben.  What’s your excuse for that big belly? 

Anyway, as I was saying I thought it would be nice if I could make it 1.5 miles before the walk break.  Once I finished the warm-up and started into the actual 3 mile tempo run, I began to think I could make it 2 miles.  Actually, I didn’t really think it, I knew it.  You know how you tell yourself stuff sometimes, but you don’t really believe it?  This wasn’t one of those times.  The thought briefly entered my head and I knew it was true.  When I passed the 1 mile mark, I was definately sure of it.  So, thats how far I made it.  I took a quarter mile walk break, then finished the 3 miles off at 7:35 pace. 

I’m pretty sure that if I were to do the same workout next Wednesday, I could make it the whole way.  Of course, next Wednesday, I have to do a slightly different tempo run.  It felt good to make it 2 miles at that pace.  I haven’t been able to do that since last October.  I’m not too worried about the walk break at this point.  Although two miles is a far cry from 26.2, I’m only in the first week of the training and this particular program is only to establish the baseline pacing for my 18 week marathon training anyway.  Still, I’m focusing on giving it my all.

“It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock and roll.”

     - AC/DC