View Workout (Rachael O'Neill)

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to the fountain off main

August 28, 2009 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: a wee bit hot

Comments:
this run was really helpful for me. on the way there, i felt a little bit sluggish and i was trying not to think about anything at all. i was just blankly looking ahead of me and trying really hard not to focus on anything. i usually worry about if my form is correct, if my shoulders are bunched up, or if my knees are high enough. but this time i just kept my shoulders back instead of trying to keep them down, and it actually worked! my shoulders were relaxed and it felt really good not having that knot along the back of my neck. after we played in the fountain for a while, we headed back and i felt a million times better than before. i was telling sarah how the run seems so much easier when i have something else to think about, like how refreshing the water felt and the coldness of my wet clothes, instead of how i'm running and how dry my throat feels, or how terrible the weather is.

i dont know how to say this and make any sense when you cant see my face, but usually when i run, my eyes are squinted and my mouth is tight and pulled to my jaw and just really tense. but it helped my whole body somehow feel so much more relaxed when i focused on relaxing my eyes and mouth into almost a smile. i know that sounds like the corniest thing ever but it really helped SO much.

i know that everyone says that running is a really mental sport and i guess i believed it to a degree but i didnt fully understand what that meant. i thought it was just a bunch of hubub and couldnt really grasp what everyone was talking about. but on the run this afternoon i was just happy. i was just thinking and feeling like "i could keep running like this forever". (and going down pine it really does feel like you're going on forever). and i just kept thinking that and silently telling myself that i could go this same speed for as long as i want. then, when we were in the school boundaries and alongside the building, i was just thinking, "im comfortable, i could go a little faster." and then at that speed, i thought "i can go even faster" and after going that speed awhile i just kept thinking the same thing again and again and kept going faster and faster and i didnt feel even the slightest bit tired. i felt truly amazing. i was in such a good mood after that run and i think what it was is just like sora and rusty were talking about. that while youre running, its just you. i just focused on moving foward. now i understand what everyone else was talking about. i have to be strong mentaly and focus. at least for me, it works to focus on clearing my mind from everything and just think about moving foward and believing that i can go faster and faster and faster. its so weird how just having faith in myself could push me so far. even when im sick, tired, and had wayyyy too much for lunch, i could go so much faster at the end of a run than i ever thought i could do at the beginning.