Tuesday: 6 Miles (46:58)
My alarm went off at 4:15 and I was mentally prepared to get to the LBT and conquer the 6 mile trek. As I rolled out of bed however, a flash of light welcomed me as I opened the door and was followed by a thundering crack that echoed through my neighborhood. While i absolutely love thunderstorms, running in them isn’t necessary the best choice, though I am sure I would have ran much more quickly. I spent the next 10 minutes arguing with myself to not go back to bed and put myself together to go to the gym. While I argued with myself, Abby, my dog, continued to watch me pace back and forth almost asking what was wrong as she herself faded in and out of consciousness. After deliberation in my own head, I gathered myself got in the car and proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes in the car convincing myself that I could run 6 miles on the treadmill. It has been weeks since I have ran on a treadmill, so to say that I was thrilled for this event this morning would be a complete and utter lie. However, once I was able to get settled in, I quickly found myself increasing my speed and with a half-hearted effort trying to watch ESPN hoping it would keep my mind off staring at the mileage on the treadmill. Though i started out rough, my speed at the end tilted between low 7’s and high 6’s and I finished with an average pace of 7:49, by far my fastest in quite some time. So maybe there is some relevance in treadmill work, but I still can’t get over staring at a TV and feeling like a hamster in a wheel, at least I don’t appear to look like the heavty hamster anymore. (Silver Lining)
Quote of the Day:
“Sometimes, we need to be hurt in order to grow. We must lose in order to gain. Sometimes, some lessons are learned best through pain.”
Wednesday: 8 Miles (1:04:50)
With yesterday’s pace on my mind, I wanted to see what I could maintain with an 8 miler on tap this evening. Ashley was generous enough to map out a route that would lead us to the Wednesday night running event at Legacy Park. With time being a factor and wanting to establish a “tempo” style run, we ran the first 4 miles at a relatively quick pace, well fast for me, probably typical for Ashley. (My friends run faster than I do and i am ok with this.) The course was “flat” she said, but the hills we ran up looked more like those that you see as you enter Branson, might be a bit sarcastic but hey, it’s my story.
It was neat to see everyone that brought their pups out to this evenings event and it made me think of Abby. She is a coonhound and needless to say she does more tracking than running when I take her out, watching everyone else run with their dogs, I appreciated the time they had taken to train their dogs because could successfully run a 5k in a matter of 1 mile with the amount of back and forth running that she does when we try to run together. Overall, it was a great evening and looking at our overall pace, this is the fastest that I have been able to run an 8 miler up to this point. Though I was winded by the end, I still feel like I have some left in the tank. Let’s hope I can still say that Saturday!
Below is the breakdown of my splits for each mile:
Mile 1: 8:23
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:35
Mile 4: 7:36
Mile 5: 8:08
Mile 6: 8:37
Mile 7: 8:23
Mile 8: 8:13
Overall Time: 1:04:50 & 8:06 Pace
Quote of the Day:
“In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.”
Saturday: 22 Miles ( 3:09:24 )
After much deliberation, I decided that I would splurge and purchase a new Garmin watch. My old 910 had been phenomenal, but I wanted the new application features that updated models offer as it has always been a hassle to scroll through my watch or waste time syncing to my computer when I could have an app that made everything readily available to analyze on the go. So with an 18 month financing offer, I walked straight into Nebraska Furniture Mart bought the new Garmin 735XT. I will eventually write up a review on this watch, but needless to say, I feel like one of the cool kids now that doesn't have a stone-age watch. :)
So the run today I knew would have its difficulties, but I didn’t believe the first difficulty would occur before I could even take off. Arriving at 4:30, yes am., to Gusto’s in Lee’s Summit, I was ready to get in at least 22 miles. After sharing that I purchased a new watch and showed it off to a few, we were on our way, the problem was, my fancy new watch was too techy for me to even find the “begin” button. A half mile later, Stephanie had figured out how to get it to the run feature and by pass the other 5 thousand features it offers and I was finally ready to track my mileage.
The first few miles felt like the normal long run day, gathering my thoughts, focusing on my body, and regulating my breathing to find my “stride” as the miles began to pile up. By the 6th mile, I was beginning to fall into the "auto-pilot" mode and I noticed that my pacing again began dip well below the projected split I initially set for Baltimore. I found myself backing off my pace at mile 10 as I dipped into the 8:10’s pace and settled in for the next several miles at or around an 8:36 pace. Ironically, out of the 22 miles this week, I ran in the 8:30’s for 10, below 8:30's for 5, and never going above an 8:54 besides the first warm-up mile. I thought about this a lot after my run today. My goal will be to maintain that average pacing for the first half of the race, within 8:30's, feel out my body and determine if that pace will be maintained in the 2nd half of the race, or if I feel I can knock a few seconds off and move into the 8:20’s for the last half and push even harder towards the end. It is all a blur at this point as I try to determine my “race pace” and normal pace, because at this time, I don't feel they are much different. I know in shorter races I can give extra, but I also know that the mileage is almost over as soon as it begins, 26.2 miles is a little different and I refuse to have a DNF for a marathon, I will walk, limp, and crawl if I have to to finish, but I would prefer to avoid that option.
Quote of the Day:
“I am willing to fail, to put everything on the line without any guarantee of success, to lose everything to succeed.”
Sunday: 6 Miles (52:59)
Today’s run was not easy. Waking up this morning after running 22 miles the day before, my body wanted nothing to do with the road. I knew I needed to put in the miles though and i was prepared to run with Jennifer as this was her last long run prior to the Plaza 10k which takes place next Sunday. Unfortunately, Jennifer had not been feeling well, but I was already mentally prepared to tackle 6 miles. Stephanie was also ready and thankfully, she was there to help push me through the mileage today. Sometimes, just having someone else there to run with, that you know wants to run is enough to keep you going. In part, I didn’t want to stop, we could have gone 8 or more, but I knew my body had wanted to quit at 2, so I had to push through. Thankfully, Stephanie is patient, and after her 83 mile week from before, crazy I know, 6 miles was enough to get her new week of mileage started. The running group was small, but it was a great run overall, time to begin the day with the sun rising and calming sounds of nature always make the runs pleasing, but also exhausting.
Quote of the Day:
"You are only as strong as you tell yourself. You can and can't do what you allow your mind to believe, it's really that simple. "
Final Thoughts:
Last week I was excited to say that I would break into the “400 Mile Club” but that didn’t happen this week. Though i was close, 396, I haven’t quite break 400. My training this week was erratic. I didn’t follow my plan and because of that, I was unable to hit the mark that I had mentally set for myself. I did however run into my first real “pain” this weekend. After running Sunday, I found that the ball of my left foot was slightly swollen and it was difficult to walk on it afterwards. It felt like a bruise, but on my bone itself. I am not good with resting, actually i am terrible at resting. In the same moment that the pain is excruciating, I also find a weird sort of bliss in it all. The quote has always been “pain is weakness leaving the body” and maybe it’s true. But it also helps me remove some of the internal “pain” you might say and displace it to something else and in those moments it’s released and almost liberating. I do need to be careful to ensure that my body can withstand the constant thrashing that I am making it endure, but with others doing much more than I, I know that my body can take it, if it can’t, I know it will knock me off my feet and that threshold I have yet to find, secretly, I may be looking for it, flirting with it if you may, because I want to see what I can endure. The test of mind over body is invigorating.
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