This year I thought I would follow a training plan for preparing for a Half Ironman Triathlon. I downloaded the weekly workouts, put them all into a nice pretty notebook...

I am five weeks out from my first race this year and the plan is calling for some seriously long runs mid week. TWO HOUR mid week runs... c'mon how can I possibly do that? It's not going to happen before work. I know myself well enough to know that the most time I can put in pre-work is 90 minutes. That means a two hour run has to happen after work. Teaching is a draining job and your hours are not flexible. Anyone who thinks it's easy and you only work 8:00 - 2:45... stick a cork in it! You never know when a parent is going to show up after school to talk about why Little Edgar isn't doing his homework. You never know what kind of day it's going to be. I deal with 31 direct reports (my students) and they are not stable, mature adults. If any of them wake up on the wrong side of the bed... I'm in for a tough day. There are days when I come home and I take a nap until Thom gets home because I so mentally drained and exhausted.

This week the plan called for a 45 minute run on Wednesday and a two hour run on Thursday. I do a lot of thinking while I'm running and on my Wednesday run I had this epiphany. I had it in my head that I couldn't do a two hour run after work. That it really was just a mental thing. I had decided I couldn't do it... therefore I couldn't! I had failed because I hadn't tried. Well, that just wasn't going to happen. I was going to do that two hour run... it would hurt. I would probably end up walking some... but it was going to happen.

Thursday run- 1 hour 55 minutes, 9.26 miles. Not a blistering pace, I walked 1.5 miles of it. But I conquered the mental demon. I CAN do that!

Veronica