First milestone done!

Yesterday I finished the first milestone towards Aconcagua; Stavanger halfmarathon. As you know I have not been training to much after the summer, so I was very curious on how it would be running a long strech like that. I finished on the time 1:58:03, and are very pleased. My legs felt fine all the way, I tried to keep a steady pace and keep the pulse low. I saw early I could never beat my Oslo time, so I foucsed on running steady and keep up the spirit.

I find it amazing how you sink into your own thoughts and stop seeing what is around you when running such long runs. My sister, Kine, asked me how it is to be at 2km and know you have 19 to go... and not give up... how to explain that? I'm not sure what others do, but I do not let myself think negative thoughs. I believe if you start paying attention how it feels, how long it is to go and the way to get there it is over. I force myself to think positive, convince myself it is a nice run, set milestones in the race, focus on running towards the finishline, and not counting kilometers. Days before the run, I picture the route in my head, and find a spot where "the turn" is. With that I mean where I stop running from the start, and start running towards the finish line. For me this helps. Running this long is a mental game, and after doing it now 6 times I feel I've found what works for me.

My next race is in Oslo 21st September. There my goal is to beat 1:49:21... which is my best time ever. I know I must work more on my stamina before that, so the coming weeks I'll focus on interval training and semi-long runs. If you have any tips for me on how to boost stamina, I'm happy to hear about it :) 

So, you may wonder, how do the feet feel today... honestly, my hips are killing me! It's like I'm 100years old, with a iron belt tight around me. Other than that I'm not sore at all, knees and ankles are perfectly fine, and no muscles hurts. It's only the hips... but I'm sure after a few days rest I'm fit for fight again :) This coming week I have a lesson with Troy, my PT again. I'm looking forward to get started with focusing on building strenght and to do something different than only running. I need more than running skills to carry heavy gear up mountains ;)