Some days, success is just getting out there
...and staying out there.
This was one of those days. Despite not getting to bed until 9:30 and definitely not being a morning person, I didn't have any trouble getting up at 4:15 a.m. 4:15 a.m. That's crazy...and yet, there I was. It definitely helps to sleep in my running clothes. One excuse down, plus, it sucks to get up in the morning and change out of running clothes after not running.
So, yeah, I was up, had breakfast, and out the door by 4:43 for a 7-mile tempo run. Goal: 1 mile warmup, 5 miles at 9:17/mile, 1 mile cool down.
The first half mile drug some, and then I got into more of a groove. Rather than running entirely on the relatively flat route I usually do for any run with a time goal, I ran the warmup mile on a different, hillier path. Once I started the tempo portion, I stuck to the flatter route. 'Twasn't pretty, let me tell you.
I was dragging. I made the tempo goal for the first mile and then missed it by one second for the next. It was downhill after that. My average pace for the seven miles was 10:03...about 30 seconds per mile slower than the 8-mile run on Saturday when I wasn't trying to hit a certain speed! I'm not sure what all was the problem. I probably had about equivalent sleep. Ate the exact same breakfast except this morning I had a banana and Saturday I had a diet Pepsi. It's not like I've logged any crazy miles. In retrospect, I think I pretty much psyched myself out.
I had started dreading it last night, already wondering how in the world I was going to keep up that pace for 5 miles.
Plus, my inner whiner was at it full force during the run.
I decided about 15 times to quit, to shorten the run, that 5 miles was plenty. In the end, even though I blew my time not even halfway into the run, I stuck it out. I told myself that, no matter how slowly I was running, I wasn't going to quit. I really like it when I surprise myself by succeeding at goals I didn't think I could meet, but I'm also learning to appreciate the victory of just not giving up.
And the splits...
Mile 1 (warmup): 10:45.1
Mile 2: 9:06.8
Mile 3: 9:18.7
Mile 4: 9:40.5
Mile 5: ~10 min. (must've accidentally hit stop button on stopwatch. Grrr.)
Mile 6: 10:17.6
Mile 7 (cool down): 11:12.9
Total time: ~1:10:21.8 (Yeah...only 5 minutes faster than I ran 8 "easy" miles Saturday.
Pace: 10:03
Maybe the secret is to just go out and run rather than try and push. Hmmm.
This was one of those days. Despite not getting to bed until 9:30 and definitely not being a morning person, I didn't have any trouble getting up at 4:15 a.m. 4:15 a.m. That's crazy...and yet, there I was. It definitely helps to sleep in my running clothes. One excuse down, plus, it sucks to get up in the morning and change out of running clothes after not running.
So, yeah, I was up, had breakfast, and out the door by 4:43 for a 7-mile tempo run. Goal: 1 mile warmup, 5 miles at 9:17/mile, 1 mile cool down.
The first half mile drug some, and then I got into more of a groove. Rather than running entirely on the relatively flat route I usually do for any run with a time goal, I ran the warmup mile on a different, hillier path. Once I started the tempo portion, I stuck to the flatter route. 'Twasn't pretty, let me tell you.
I was dragging. I made the tempo goal for the first mile and then missed it by one second for the next. It was downhill after that. My average pace for the seven miles was 10:03...about 30 seconds per mile slower than the 8-mile run on Saturday when I wasn't trying to hit a certain speed! I'm not sure what all was the problem. I probably had about equivalent sleep. Ate the exact same breakfast except this morning I had a banana and Saturday I had a diet Pepsi. It's not like I've logged any crazy miles. In retrospect, I think I pretty much psyched myself out.
I had started dreading it last night, already wondering how in the world I was going to keep up that pace for 5 miles.
Plus, my inner whiner was at it full force during the run.
I decided about 15 times to quit, to shorten the run, that 5 miles was plenty. In the end, even though I blew my time not even halfway into the run, I stuck it out. I told myself that, no matter how slowly I was running, I wasn't going to quit. I really like it when I surprise myself by succeeding at goals I didn't think I could meet, but I'm also learning to appreciate the victory of just not giving up.
And the splits...
Mile 1 (warmup): 10:45.1
Mile 2: 9:06.8
Mile 3: 9:18.7
Mile 4: 9:40.5
Mile 5: ~10 min. (must've accidentally hit stop button on stopwatch. Grrr.)
Mile 6: 10:17.6
Mile 7 (cool down): 11:12.9
Total time: ~1:10:21.8 (Yeah...only 5 minutes faster than I ran 8 "easy" miles Saturday.
Pace: 10:03
Maybe the secret is to just go out and run rather than try and push. Hmmm.
well said- the victory of not giving up. Sometimes, when i am having a really bad run, I just count from one to ten over and over again out loud. I probably sound like a crazy lady, but it almost always clears my head and at least gets me to the finish line.
ReplyDelete