Journal
We are now well into the 2004 track season with the Trials just a short 5 weeks away. Training has been going really well and my body is holding up. Even racing has picked up quite a bit. The road leading up to this point has been a bit rocky though so I'll fill you in on the past 6 months as much as I can.
Earlier this year it was the story of my life - training going really well but racing just not happening. Mentally I was falling apart in all my races. I finally decided to go back to seeing a sports psychologist to see if they could help me with the mental side of racing. I was desperate to get my competitive edge back. After a few sessions my therapist suggested that maybe I was just doing too much. Her theory was that I was so exhausted by the time Saturday races came around that I had nothing mentally, physically, or emotionally to give. I was in a rut: getting up at 5:45am each morning so I could get into work early and leave early, racing home to eat lunch and sit down for an hour before practice, then racing off to practice, SMI to ice, roll, and take care of myself, and then home to cook dinner and fall into bed. Some of what she was saying made sense and so I decided (along with Kevin's support) to take a leave of absence from work to focus on my running for the rest of the season. KPMG was fantastic about it and agreed that it was something I must do so we completed the paperwork and started looking for a less expensive place to live :-)
I have been off work for just over a month now and I cannot tell you how much more I am enjoying my running. Training is still going really well but now so is racing. I actually have time to myself and time to do the little things I wasn't doing before, and it has helped my so much. I just ran a PR in the 800m last week - 2:04.91 - and am loving competing once again.
I had been saying all along that if I didn't run fast enough this year it would be my final year. Now I am loving it so much that I hope I can run the times I set for myself just so I can run another year :-) What a change just taking some time off has made :-)
I will race 2 or 3 more times before heading off to England for the Trials. I leave California on July 2nd and return July 19th.
Will keep you posted.