Against all odds

Life and work goes on outside of training but so much of my thinking is about what my training schedule looks like for the next week.  It's usually my last thought at night and 1st thought in the morning.  This weeks challenge, other than a lot of early runs before work, was that I was attending the Scotland v England rugby on Saturday.  That meant I'd need another early morning run before travelling through to Edinburgh and on Sunday I may be a "bit delicate".  But we worked around those challenges.
A good weeks training was had with the stats starting to show that training on heart rate zones is paying off.  I'm hitting all my targets and starting to feel good which is a good place to be.  While running on Saturday I was treated to the sound of a wood pecker drilling away as I was running past. That's definitely one of the benefits of running with no music - you tune in to your surroundings and your body.
But the highlight of the week has to be the rugby result.  Scotland hadn't won against England in 10 years.  England are the number 2 team in the world and heavier than Scotland.  Everything pointed to an England win but against all odds, Scotland pulled off a miraculous result.  What I took from that was if you believe in yourself, no matter what others are saying, you can achieve unbelievable results.    I was discussing this with rugby legend Scott Hastings after the match and he was in agreement that if you have a "purpose" you can achieve amazing results.  As you know Maggie's Cancer Centres are my purpose and it keeps me going.
At this stage in my training, running 90 mins is OK but in 131 days Ill be running/walking/crawling 71 miles in under 22 hours.  The maths is simple, just do 3.22 mph for 22 hours and mission accomplished - what's the big deal?  Having completed a 20 hour run/walk/crawl in the Grand Canyon I know what it's like.  You need to get your pace right, hydration spot on and fuel properly throughout the day or you will fail.  So I'm going to continue on this structured training plan and block out any thoughts that will get in the way of the result I want.  I'll take a leaf out of Scotland's book and give it my full commitment.
This morning I headed out early, I wasn't too delicate, and walked up Tinto twice and ran down twice.  I didn't fancy the 2nd attempt but thought about the commitment the Scotland players had shown yesterday against all odds yet they came away with the silverware.  I made sure I completed my session and felt good afterwards for remaining committed.  It's the only way to achieve tough targets but having them written down and being continually held accountable means there's no room for complacency.  I may have achieved things in the past, but they are just that - history.  I need to be ready to deliver again so the journey continues.