{"id":29,"date":"2010-02-12T08:50:44","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T13:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/?p=29"},"modified":"2010-09-29T13:40:31","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T17:40:31","slug":"the-will-to-win-means-nothing-without-the-will-to-prepare-juma-ikangaa-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/?p=29","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.&#8221;   &#8211; Juma Ikangaa, Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Disclaimer:\u00a0 My spelling and grammar may suck in these entries.\u00a0 I think I&#8217;m technologically advanced enough to hit the spell check button, but I&#8217;m not sure.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer2: Entries won&#8217;t always be this long.\u00a0 But I have internet access and boredom.\u00a0 Not a bad combo.<\/p>\n<p>Me?\u00a0 Organized?\u00a0 Likes to be prepared?\u00a0 Ok, ok, smile if you must.\u00a0 I know that I like organization and to prepare for things in advance.\u00a0 But I&#8217;m learning to enjoy the challenges of running.\u00a0 Like training for my first half marathon in typical New England summer weather, some heat &#8211; then race day is 90+ degrees with humidity and a raging thunderstorm.\u00a0 I ran the last few miles with my arms above my head to block the tree branches that were falling down.\u00a0 Or last year, when I got a horrible 5-day stomach flu the week before the race and ended up walking a few of the final miles.\u00a0 And I am still trying to figure out how not to feel like puking after the half marathon (I&#8217;ve found that a long, hot shower and Hot Tamales candy help somewhat).\u00a0 Anyway, I will be spending some time in the next week or so choosing a training program for my races.\u00a0 Mental training is ongoing.\u00a0 I seriously underestimated this when I first started running.\u00a0 I just read an article in which an elite runner lives in Oregon and trains not only with one of the world&#8217;s best marathoners, but also with a sports psychologist.\u00a0 Even during a good run, negatively will literally suck the energy away from my muscles.\u00a0 Music only drowns that &#8220;voice&#8221; out so much.\u00a0 I try to have a mantra to help me keep going.\u00a0 I tend to use &#8220;I eat hills for breakfast&#8221; to help motivate my butt up the steep hills that are EVERYWHERE around here.\u00a0 The saying makes me giggle. \u00a0 I try to set little goals for myself in each race (i.e. don&#8217;t walk unless you have to, try to knock a few seconds off last year&#8217;s time).\u00a0 I am not willing to change my diet much.\u00a0 I LOVE FOOD and a good glass (or two!) of vino.\u00a0 Ben and I make an effort to eat locally, as we are spoiled with great farmstands and local milk\/cheeses.\u00a0 There is just so much good food out there, I make an effort to support agriculture by eating a lot of it!\u00a0 I try to watch what I eat while training, especially making sure I get enough protein because I don&#8217;t eat a lot of meat.\u00a0 I\u00a0 increase my intake of fish, soy, and beans, which makes for very interesting digestional noises and events.\u00a0 So why DO I run?\u00a0 I like the challenge.\u00a0 I love the adrenaline rush (which may explain the wanting to puke after longer races).\u00a0 I like the sense of community that happens at races in my area.\u00a0 There is a large running community up here yet I see the same familiar faces at the races.\u00a0 I wouldn&#8217;t say that I&#8217;m a serious runner,\u00a0 but I&#8217;m serious about training because I don&#8217;t want to get injured and I believe that I need to work to earn my place in the pack, however far back that may be.\u00a0 I think what I like the most, though, is that I can be quiet and alone even at the starting line with a thousand other people.\u00a0 No one is going to get me over the finish line except me.\u00a0 If I didn&#8217;t train well, that&#8217;s my responsibility.\u00a0 If I knocked a couple of minutes off my time from last year, that was my hard work.\u00a0 Maybe this sounds selfish or narcissistic, but I find it very humbling to work at being alone with myself and my thoughts, and to get to know my body&#8217;s abilities and struggle to tolerate my limitations.\u00a0 Ok.\u00a0 Enough for now.\u00a0 Get off your butts and move.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Amy<\/p>\n<p>Words of wisdom &#8211; When you run outside in the cold, sweat will freeze all on your face like a Santa Claus beard, which you won&#8217;t realize until you get back to your car.\u00a0 Wool face masks itch and make me break out in a rash.\u00a0 Which is worse?\u00a0 I vote for Santa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disclaimer:\u00a0 My spelling and grammar may suck in these entries.\u00a0 I think I&#8217;m technologically advanced enough to hit the spell check button, but I&#8217;m not sure. Disclaimer2: Entries won&#8217;t always be this long.\u00a0 But I have internet access and boredom.\u00a0 Not a bad combo. Me?\u00a0 Organized?\u00a0 Likes to be prepared?\u00a0 Ok, ok, smile if you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1672,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.beamychron.com\/live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}