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Gettin' Close

First race is this Saturday.  Not much time to get the body ready, but plenty to get the mind and gear ready.  The gear should take an hour or so to make sure I have everything I need plus spares-- in case of rain or damage--stuff does break.   Later this week I will lay out all my stuff and make sure I pack what I need to race.   The mind--that is a totally different matter.  

I am quite a bit more stable or confident after running on Sunday.  I did some starts with blocks and ran a couple of 50 meters at 98% with no problem with my leg.  The leg is healed up, but the mind still needs some convincing.  I guess I need to give it      " the talk".  I ran quite a bit of the workout at 85 to 90% and had no leg discomfort and felt pretty good about my speed.  The speed will be there, I just need to find a way to allow the body to take over and basically--'let it rip'.  I have no real injuries and need to be thankful that I am healthy.  Staying healthy is the biggest part of competing at 56 years old.     

Today I did my core work--which makes the lower abs stronger and prevents issues with a sports hernia-- an issue 3 years ago.  The core work I have been doing has kept it under control every since.   I also did some running to keep the conditioning up to snuff,  canned 3 gallons of tomatoes and also found some time to work!   In a couple of weeks, it will be chili time.  We don't have time right now to shell the beans for the chili and will allow them to get a little drier.   When we get the beans shelled, thaw out 8 pounds of venison, add the canned tomatoes and the  fresh picked onions-- we are in business--about 4 gallons of chili for the freezer.      I guess you would call this sustainable, but I like to call it "good" chili.  Put in the stuff you grow and it tastes great with low fat, high protein and none of the artificial food added.

I mentioned the mind control earlier and for example:  I can be sitting in a room with nothing going on and start to think about racing and the heart rate can go from 80 to 130  and back in a few minutes.  Just thinking about racing drives my heart rate nuts.   Over the years,  I have worked at  keeping my heart rate under control when getting close to big events.   Otherwise I am standing at the starting line with my heart rate at 145.  Way too high to start a race--you have to relax.    Top priority the next couple of days is to make sure my mind responds to what I want and need--not going off willy nilly and running a race and driving me nuts and burning a lot of energy on fantasy.  Sounds crazy, but it is real and something I will fight everyday leading up to race time.  

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