Track and Field Blogs - Nate Brannen

After a 2 week stint in Tempe, Arizona I’m now back in Michigan. I got in Monday night at 6 pm and when the plane landed, much to my delight, the snow had melted and the air temperature was hovering around 35. I forgot that this is Michigan and no snow in February just means we will be getting hit again very soon. It didn’t take long for that to happen. I woke up Tuesday morning to 4 inches of snow on the ground. So much for running with no snow. Back to the treadmill it is.

It didn’t take me long while on my trip to Tempe to start thinking, “why haven’t I done this before?” I’ve been trying to run through the snow, ice, and wind of the Michigan winters for the past six years. I can definitely say this, I will be doing a lot more warm weather training in the future. It was so nice to be outside in shorts and a t-shirt in February. Not only was the great weather a very pleasant change, the trip also brought some other great news. If you read my first blog you would know that the last 10 months have been very mentally tough for me. It was hard for a long time to see any light at the end of any tunnel, let alone the tunnel I was looking down. But things have finally started to turn my way and the light is now knocking at my door.

The great news…well for me it is great. Tuesday morning, after a week in Tempe, I completed my first real workout of the year. I have been very patient with things since surgery but thought it was finally time to try something on the track…and it went better than I could have ever expected. Andrew Ellerton and myself did a track session yesterday morning at the Mesa Community College track. Although the session wasn’t anything spectacular, it was still a big motivator and also proved to me that I am fitter than I thought. The session consisted of 4x200, 8x400, 4x200 with 30 seconds rest between reps and 2 minutes rest between sets. I wanted to keep the recovery very short to ensure I didn’t get too excited and try to push things. I am only human and the natural instinct is to take advantage of opportunities too soon. I tend to get over zealous but one thing I have learned is patience is the key to success. Patience is still the major key for me right now and knowing when to step back and just let things fall into place. Everything will happen if you are patient and don’t try to force things.

I was expecting to get to Tempe, train out of the Michigan winter for two weeks and finally start moving forward and possibly do a workout or two. I ended up getting in five workouts while I was there, pain free may I add, a couple long runs and two very consistent weeks of good running. Overall it was a great trip, one big step forward, and the motivation I needed to get me through the next six weeks of winter.