Confidence

Today I repeated my workout of September 23 - the so-called "Yasso Alternatives" - but this time I added the extra mile:  essentially, a pair of two-mile repeats with a rest in between.  This is a similar workout to one that my visitor Derek was telling me about Monday - he did a lot of two-mile and three-mile repeats, he said, at a good fast clip.  Mine averaged 9:15 per mile - 15 seconds faster than tempo pace - which is exactly the pace - to the second - that I was aiming for.  So it was very satisfying.  All of these workouts, including the final set of mile repeats next week, are confidence-builders, and I have come to believe that confidence is just as essential to build up as everything else during a marathon-training program.

Confidence.  I have always loved that word, and in particular its etymology:

"Early 15c., from Middle French confidence or directly from Latin confidentia, from confidentem (nominative confidens) "firmly trusting, bold," present participle of confidere "to have full trust or reliance," from com-, intensive prefix (see com), + fidere "to trust" (see faith)."

That's exactly what we strive to do, in training and in racing:  to run with faith and trust.