T-Minus 66 Days and Counting. . .
One thought that has always gone through my mind in the four years we've trained for marathon is this: if I can suffer through a bad day and still end up with a fast time, then that bad day really can be considered a good day. Today was one of those days.
We took a rest day on Tuesday, after the tough intervals on Monday. According to our training program, we were set for a tempo run today of 8 miles at a pace of between 9 and 9:15 per mile. One problem: in my mind, I thought we had to do 8:55 miles. So, we cranked out the first 4 miles at about 9:05 and not only was I feeling like crap, I was frustrated at how slow I thought we were going. Felt sluggish and just didn't have the energy I usually have.
We'd left from our house, ran around the path at Rock Valley College and then cut over into a subdivision to head north. Crossed over Riverside and then hit another subdivision for a bit 'til we hit the 4-mile mark on the GPS.
Hit the turnaround in 36:30 and began the slog back home. As Jen will tell you, when I'm running I'm usually focused on two things; I like to suffer and I like to hit my times. So, I dialed it up quite a bit in the last three miles. With two to go, I was still feeling less than optimal but the end was near. Hit the last mile marker, looked at my time and realized I could bring it home with an easy 9 minute mile and still hit the average per mile time that I wanted.
Well, that would be too easy. So, I throttled up the suffering and cranked out the last mile in 8:15. And, I'm all the more happy with that last mile, considering it included a wicked uphill at Rock Valley that usually ticks my heart rate way up. Watched my pace on this and hit the crest feeling great.
Soooooo, after feeling like crap for nearly the entire run, I was able to bring it home in 1:11, for an average pace of 8:54. Jen pulled in just a couple minutes behind me and felt pretty good about her run as well.
By the way, if you talk to Jen, don't tell her that I misread the training paces. I like to suffer. She typically doesn't.
We took a rest day on Tuesday, after the tough intervals on Monday. According to our training program, we were set for a tempo run today of 8 miles at a pace of between 9 and 9:15 per mile. One problem: in my mind, I thought we had to do 8:55 miles. So, we cranked out the first 4 miles at about 9:05 and not only was I feeling like crap, I was frustrated at how slow I thought we were going. Felt sluggish and just didn't have the energy I usually have.
We'd left from our house, ran around the path at Rock Valley College and then cut over into a subdivision to head north. Crossed over Riverside and then hit another subdivision for a bit 'til we hit the 4-mile mark on the GPS.
Hit the turnaround in 36:30 and began the slog back home. As Jen will tell you, when I'm running I'm usually focused on two things; I like to suffer and I like to hit my times. So, I dialed it up quite a bit in the last three miles. With two to go, I was still feeling less than optimal but the end was near. Hit the last mile marker, looked at my time and realized I could bring it home with an easy 9 minute mile and still hit the average per mile time that I wanted.
Well, that would be too easy. So, I throttled up the suffering and cranked out the last mile in 8:15. And, I'm all the more happy with that last mile, considering it included a wicked uphill at Rock Valley that usually ticks my heart rate way up. Watched my pace on this and hit the crest feeling great.
Soooooo, after feeling like crap for nearly the entire run, I was able to bring it home in 1:11, for an average pace of 8:54. Jen pulled in just a couple minutes behind me and felt pretty good about her run as well.
By the way, if you talk to Jen, don't tell her that I misread the training paces. I like to suffer. She typically doesn't.
posted by W.S. Wuori at 9:14 PM
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