This week is the first real week I am coaching myself. I guess I did last week too, but there's not a whole lot of choices to be made when you are running two track races in a week. Today's run was really exciting. 12.93k easy at 4:47 pace. PT appt later. He's been working on my lower back but there is no massage in this PT's regamin so I am going to try another I think. Then I met Kami Semick for the first time. She is a big time, internationally reknown ultramarathoner (Davy Crockett knows who she is). She also moved to HK last August. We had lunch and got to know each other. In the evening I gave my 45 minute talk titled "Spiritual Lessons the Marathon has taught Me" to my family. I gave each of them a note pad, and JJ was the timer (he gave me a five minute warning when I had five minutes left). JJ started crying in the middle because we wouldn't let him make comments in the middle. His comment was that I was using too many big words and he couldn't understand anything that I was saying. That was nice. Paul said it was the best talk he had ever heard, better than any general conference talk, etc. Well that may be a bit over the top, but still made me feel good. Here's the outline And don't give me crap because I am not perfect about these principles from running, some of these things we are "blessed" to be able to learn over and over, right? 5 lessons from training: 1. Base work 2. Workouts-stresses that enable you to handle bigger stresses in the future 3 The Iterative nature of training cycles 4 Prioritizing our efforts 5 Assembling a support team (ya'll are in my support team) 4 lessons from racing: 1. Fuel along the way 2. I can't run faster than I have strength (I especially get to relearn this one over and over) 3 Don't trust appearances 4 Race the clock 6 priniciples in mental training 1. Keep your goals in mind 2. Be a part of others' support team 3. You have to practice caring 4. Make peace with the process 5. Trust your coach 6. Celebrate your accomplishments. Mind-blowing stuff, right? | 