The good news is…I ran my last mile in 5:15. The bad news is…my first two miles were 5:40 and 5:30. Race time was 17:01 (are you kidding me?), good enough for 2nd. Should have a full report up by the end of the day on what turned out to be a surprisingly difficult course.
Jen was the real star of the day…25:50 and first in her age group! We got matching lunch bags!
I have to say that sometimes it’s a lot easier to talk about doing something than it is to actually do it. So remember the while “Mindset” thing from a few days ago? Yeah…kind of blew it today.
So this week I’m scaling things back on the intensity so my legs are a little fresher on Saturday. Still trying to keep the mileage at 90, but my quality seasons are dialed down. Anyway tonight was a 15 min run at threshold (5:45 pace). No biggie, right?
All day, I was thinking it would be totally cruiser, and that it would feel easy, just a little something to keep the legs from going stale. Danger, Will Robinson…remember my position on “feeling?” At any rate, I think you can see what’s coming…
Yep, workout felt hard, legs felt heavy, yadda yadda. And then my old friend, Self-Doubt, made an appearance: This is hard? Wait until you try to run 5:20s this weekend! Turd. I hate that guy. Anyway, I hit my splits, but my Garmin was acting up, which always pisses me off…it was a long 15 minutes. I certainly had a hard time staying focused and positive.
As I cooled down, I realized I walked myself right into my own ambush on this one. The whole day before the workout, completely taking the thing for granted, assuming I would feel a certain way. Pretty much all the crap I just warned against. So, a fun way to learn to take my own advice, huh?
At any rate, I’d rather learn these lessons in training as opposed to in the middle of a race. Tonight served as a stern warning for Saturday: these paces are hard, fast, and uncomfortable, so bring a straw, son (so you can suck it up).
Sorry to report we are having some in-tah-net troubles, so it looks like I won’t be able to get a a full post up for maybe a day our two to finish up the series 😦 I’m being forced to post this quick hit from my phone…surprisingly this whole Swype keyboard for the Samsung Galaxy is actually pretty convenient.
In the meantime, I will keep you posted on developments. I’m running the Laurens Reindeer Run 5k on Sat and hoping to throw down a bit. Oh and to whoever subscribed to the blog, thanks! Pretty sure you’re the first, whoever you might be.
Trials…
Matthew Komatsu 