I love Tuesdays!

Most people think that the week starts on Monday but what it's worth, my week starts on Tuesdays. That's because I usually take Monday off from running and do some light weight lifting and core training.

Every Tuesday morning I meet my friend Ken at 5:45 AM and we run anywhere from 10-12 Miles. This is by far the fastest run I'll have all week and it's usually the only run where I actually have some company. When I was training to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon two years ago, Ken and I would run "tempo" runs together on Tuesday mornings. These runs would be extremely fast but they also seem so long ago. Now that both of us are training for endurance races, we still run Tuesdays at a fast pace but nowhere near the speed we used to run.

Running mostly alone forces me to really dig down deep to motivate myself. I think I shock many of my running friends when I tell them that I run my long runs by myself. This past weekend when I ran for 5 hours was particularly tough but also mentally satisfying at the same time. Running forces you to use your mind to overcome challenges and while it's nice to have people to run with, it still comes down to overcoming individual battles.

I think what I'm most proud of has been my ability to do most of my training on my own. I know that when things get tough in the Seaton race, I'll be able to recall all those long training runs that I've done. What I'm most thankful for, though, is having a friend to run with at least once per week as it gives me a chance to listen to someone else talk instead of me listening to all the voices in me head (LOL).