If you read my blog yesterday, you won't be surprised to hear - my run today was AWFUL. 1:50 was the target time, and an interesting workout I haven't done before - base run with a one minute bump up to 7:45 pace or better every 10 minutes. It was probably the perfect run for me today, at least as far as long runs go. This I felt was a doable thing today...surely every 10 minutes I could bump it up for a mere 60 seconds. And with yesterday, I truly only cared about logging the 110 minutes of running - this in and of itself would be a huge accomplishment today. The first 10 minutes flew by quicker than I expected - I was barely warmed up it seemed, but thankfully that first bump-up was on a downhill. Easy to do better than 7:45 on the downhill :) and managed to pull in a 7:05! Others weren't as pretty, especially the ones on an uphill - but for the most part I was able to do this. I had my "aid stations" set up as per last week, and I did "walk through" each of them. lol. Some miles were better than others. Some fast minutes were better than others. The last lap, all I can say is thank god for slow people, because I was actually running faster than this couple on bikes - sure made me feel good! One of my slowest runs of the year...actually only 1 slower, and that was mid-May, the day after Brasstown, when I hurt really bad (and with good reason). Normally I do a loop in 24-25 minutes, and better than 24 when I'm on "race pace". Today's first took over 27 minutes. Yikes. Over the course of a marathon that adds up to almost a half hour longer!
So Chris is always telling me that I worry too much. Which is probably true. And not too long ago, this run would have had me very worried. I'm interestingly not concerned though at this point. I thought about what I had done in the 48 hours preceding this run: longest pool workout ever at 4200 yds, 7 mile run with 5 mile repeats at 7:30 pace, 100 mile bike ride followed by 6 mile run, and then 12 miles this morning on the long run. And that's not considering everything else I've done just this week, nor certainly this month. And it's been a big month! No wonder my run was a little slower than ideal today. So I'm actually finding it rather encouraging that I was able to do this run, at an albeit slightly embarrassing pace of 9:21, after the day I had yesterday. And so I'm thinking, if I can do that after everything I've been doing, and I'm not rested, or peaking, then, hell...it bodes well for IMC, when I will be rested, and I will be peaking. And besides, weekends like this are character building. We all need them once in a while. They make us stronger. And they make us question why we do this crazy stuff, enough to figure it out, and find the resolve to keep doing it. I'm sure the look on my face today...all the people who passed me on the road, thinking why the hell doesn't she just stop...after all, the pain goes away as soon as you stop...but that's just not how I'm made. And I'm okay with that!
So this week...18:15. Wow. Gonna do my best to get it all done, and put everything into it, make every minute count. Do what I'm told, when. (see: yesterday). It'll be an early night to bed every night this week so I can be rested enough to do it all. We're down to the single digits now - 9 weeks. Still time to make a difference, improve my fitness, and certainly gain confidence. And that's what I plan to do.
Huge congrats to James who is out there finishing his own Ironman today. Been so great training with you...finish strong my friend! Looking forward to celebrating with you when you get back to the ATL.
Happy training !!
Kat
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