Dropping My Bag Of S***

In 2005 -06 I partially tore my Achilles tendon. It was horrible. I had to wear a boot. For weeks I cycled with one leg and swam with my feet tied together. The road back from that was very slow and I was very cautious. I only ran three days a week and it took a long time to get my mental and my physical running strength back.

I was never a stellar runner but in 2004-05 I was beginning to make some progress. To be injured just blew me apart.

Last winter at a party I ran into coach T. Trevor Syversen is his real name and I suspect he might hate being called Coach T. But I also routinely gave my college swim coach the middle finger during sets which bought me nothing but harder sets. I have a mental T shirt that says "I hate Coach T" and I suspect the same happens to me.

But like any good coach I am told to HTFU, "cry me a river princess", etc. That's why I have the coach I have.

So over a year ago Coach T told me he would have me running every single day if he were my coach. I balked. EVERY DAY? Was he crazy? I'd be injured! I am not a runner. The little story I spun, that little story we all spin.... I call it our bag of shit.... started to develop.... I could never run every single day.... blah blah blah..... and I remember him repeating it. And repeating it..... I'd have you run every single day.

So after Ironman lake Placid I enlisted his help for Ironman Florida. You know what the first thing he did was? Launch me into a running camp. 14 days of straight running. I missed one day because I was in the hospital with my son... he had broken his leg... and you know what? I got slapped with a double run day to make it up.

Believe me as much as I sound like I am complaining I enjoy this type of coaching more than you know. Maybe I have a fascination with pain.

The thing is however, running is not painful... anymore. Running is awesome. Running is what I crave. What it took to get me to the point where I could run painlessly every single day... was running the correct paces on the correct days.

Coach T taught me about Jack Daniels and the V Dot system.

My old pace for every run would be about 8-8:30. That matched my proverbial "heart rate zone 2". 3 weeks after Ironman Lake Placid Coach T met me at the track (AAAAHHHH) and timed me in a 5K.... on the track....... which might have been as fun as having my eyeballs ripped out with a metal stick.

From that 5K time he established my V dot and my subsequent paces. For example my E pace was now 9:15-9:30. I crapped my pants. NINE FIFTEEN???? I emotionally balked as Mary there athlete protested...... how would this make me faster? Mary the coach smiled, I knew he was right.

So I started running my prescribed pace. Suddenly I had a much faster cadence. My foot landing was midfoot. I felt lighter. For fourteen days in a row I ran E pace, and I had runs of varying lengths. Form 30-45 minutes. Long run one hour.

At the end of that 2 weeks I felt very different. I felt GOOD!

From there Coach T broke up my runs. Easy days easy, hard days hard. Which meant I had exact paces to hit. Tempo runs and long runs all had a purpose and would be sandwiched by E paced runs. It came to the point where I could run E paced in my sleep.

Which is what we wanted in an Ironman.

During an Ironman you can expect to hold an E pace. For runners like me at least who haven't had that stellar marathon. Then you build from there and aim for those faster paces. I didn't have a great Ironman marathon so that's where we began. And I did just that in Ironman Florida. The entire marathon I felt awesome, in control, like a runner.

WOW.

Fast forward to Sunday. Through the winter I have been running just about every single day. I ran in 10Ks and I didn't have spectacular times, but I wasn't looking for times. I was there looking to learn how to handle running pain, pushing pain through snow, wind.... all to allow me a little HTFU. I've been running tempo with exact paces to hold and we just began the long run work. The volume is there and Coach T is adding quality. I firmly believe these long run structures are what will make or break the deal.

At the Spring Forward I didn't hold some magical sub 6 minute pace. I am not there just yet. It was my fastest or near fastest time on the course. I do all of my long runs on this course and 2008 brought me something during this race I have never felt before.....

I felt strong. And I was passing people. Many commented "WOW MARY YOU LOOK STRONG." which if you are me is a compliment of the highest order. Mary and the word strong in the running arena have never really matched.

I was running in control, I was feeling powerful up the hills, and I was fearless, absent of fear, absent of self doubt and full of strength. Today would be about proving to myself I can in fact run. I can in fact finish strong, and I can in fact go for it.

I didn't win the race, but I won so much else. The feeling of not backing off hills. The feeling of meeting fatigue and not allowing it to overtake me. In fact in retrospect I don't remember fatigue at all. I just remember running happy. Running free.

That's something I have never had running. RUNNING!

At the end of a 17 hour training week I was more than thrilled. I was ecstatic.

I look back at that conversation I had with Coach T a year ago and how I laughed at running every day. Now I laugh at myself. It took me dropping that bag of shit. It took me taking a chance. And my Achilles? Healed. They never give me problems. It's because I am running the right pace for me.

Things are falling into place. I can see the fruits of this labor beginning to take shape. We'll be ready for Gulf Coast. Coach T says I won't be 100% at that race yet.... which leads me to believe I have some very hard work coming up. He must have seen how many times I have given him the middle finger during the FTP rides, or tempo runs..... because each time I did that in college the set got bigger, harder and crazier.

And that.... is exactly what I am hoping for!