"It's a little self indulgent..." - My mom
"After I read a sentence, I get mad at myself for caring what you're doing." -Karl Dusen

Friday, June 25, 2010

Minor setbacks

After the success of the last few days of running, I was feeling pretty good. I thought a 3x2 mile workout on Thursday would go swimmingly and I could easily push my weekly total to 90 miles.
Both assumptions were incorrect.
Thursday morning started well enough, with a four-mile Fisherman's loop. Thursday evening, I headed out in 90 degrees for the Greenwich Mile loop. From the get-go, I was feeling tired, but thought I would give it a shot. I was shooting for 10:30s- hitting 5:15 by going 2:37-2:38 for the halves. I was right on pace for the first one, but I slowed dramatically from 1600-2000: I dropped to 5:40 pace. I recovered a bit and came through the first half of the second mile in 2:39, but I was going to have to fight like crazy to hit 10:30. And I failed- finishing in 10:39- not where I wanted to be... I had some water and jogged around, but knew I was done before I got into the meat of the workout. I jogged a four-mile cooldown to the 66 overpass on the W&OD and called it a day, still getting 12.1.
I spent a little too much time cleaning my kitchen that night and didn't get to bed as early as I wanted. When my alarm went off at 6:15, I summarily reset it for 7, realizing that with a 20-mile run the next morning, it might be wise of me to take it easy the day before, since I'll be proving myself somewhat. So, I slept in and did three miles on the Fisherman's loop and will do five around Capitol Hill after work. With 12 on Sunday, I'll still hit 85 for the week, and it only makes sense. Tomorrow's 20 miler is an important step for me- I've run that much just thrice before, and only twice in a single effort- my 20-miler in Oct. 2008 and the Marine Corps Marathon. I ran that far in a single day during the Philadelphia Marathon and almost ran that far the day after the Monument Avenue 10k. I'll be fighting the heat and humidity, though I have a few factors in my favor: I'll be running with a bunch of GRC guys so they'll keep my pace under control, plus we're starting slow and then speeding up after 10, so knowing I am halfway there will be a huge confidence boost when the going gets tough. I might bring a change of socks, and I will certainly bring several frozen bottles of water and various sports drinks. It's also not supposed to be sweltering tomorrow- 74 degrees with 75% humidity in Poolesville at 8 am, and of course the temperature will increase and relative humidity will decrease over the next 2+ hours.

1 comment:

  1. Our Weds workouts have been MUCH slower than we intended. It's the heat. 5:10s feel like 5:15s and 5:15s feel like 5:35s. These workouts (in this weather) should be run by feel and not by time. Also, starting out a tick slower than normal also helps. Anyways, you're not alone.

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