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March 08, 2006

Best Week Ever

This week has just been simply awesome, as far as running has been concerned. After last week, when all my workouts just felt hard and long and, generally speaking, not good, I really needed a breakthrough. I was starting to worry that I just wasn't where I should be fitness-wise for where I was in my training schedule, and that, coupled with some work and personal stress was just bringing me down. However, the work stress ended on Friday when we finally figured out the problem we'd been fighting all week, and the personal stress ended Friday evening when I tied up some loose ends from an old relationship. All that had to happen was for the running to fall back into place.

And it did. Saturday's run was OK (especially when you consider that I was kind of hung-over), but Sunday's run... Sunday's run was the turning point. I set the alarm for 6, and got up and ate breakfast. Then? I reset the alarm for 8 and went back to bed, so I could give my breakfast time to digest. (A quick shout-out here to the other Dawn, who left a comment letting me know that she waited an hour and a half after eating to go run. I've been making myself wait at least 2 hours after breakfast to go running the past couple of weeks, and you know what? The digestive rebellion appears to have come to an end!) By the time I actually got out of bed and hit the road, it was almost 9. It wasn't too cold, it wasn't raining or snowing, and it wasn't too windy. I set out with no plans other than to keep a nice, even relaxed pace for the next 11 miles. Last week, my long run was only 9 miles, but I was toast at the end. Why? Because I got all worried about pace - my coach revised the pace guidelines for my long runs upwards a bit, and I got all worried about trying to hit the upper end of it. However, I don't yet really know what 11:30 miles feel like, so I started out too fast and wound up exhausted by the end. Not fun. This time, I said, "hey, my pace range is a) just a guideline and b) goes down to 12:30. I know what 12:00 - 12:30 miles feel like, so I'll just try for that."

And, what do you know? By keeping it relaxed? I hit pretty consistent splits right around 12:30 for the first 9 miles. It's amazing how smart your body can be when you actually listen to it, instead of trying to stay in control of it. Silly girl. Even better than that, I had enough gas in the tank to kick up the pace a bit for the last 2 miles - mile 10 was done in 11:53, and I kicked out mile 11 in a blazing 10:11.

Yes, I had enough gas in the tank to kick out a 10-minute mile after running for over 2 hours. Sure, I was pretty much sprinting by the last quarter mile, but it felt good, not like I was about to die. When I finished, I felt like I could go back out for a few more miles, and was sort of sad to be done. Which, now that I think about it, is how a long run should be.

Tuesday's workout was equally fantastic. I had a 2 mile warm-up and cool-down on the schedule, and in between those were 10-12 strides of 30 seconds at 5K pace or less, with 1 minute recovery. Last week, I did 10 of these at a 9:13 pace, and it damn near killed me. This week? I did the first 3 at 9:13, and they felt too easy. So I kicked it up to 9:05 for the next 3. Still too easy. Up to 8:57 for the next 3. Starting to feel not-so-easy, but not really hard yet. The last three were at 8:49, 8:42, and 8:34 - by the end, it was starting to get challenging, but the 30 second intervals still felt really short, and the recovery time in between still felt really long. I felt like I could have done more of them, and faster, too.

Normally, with these workouts, I sort of hate the cool-down. I run them on the treadmill, which is great for hitting the right paces on my intervals, but it really sucks when cool-down time comes. I've finished the "workout" itself, so I'm not quite as focuses, and the 2 miles just drags on for. ev. er. For some reason though, I got into a groove yesterday. The sound on the TVs wasn't working, but the closed captioning was, so I could read the news. Plus, I was listening to these two guys talk on the next treadmills over - it was a younger guy, who clearly just started working for the older guy. Listening to the kid (well, "kid" compared to the guy he was with - he was probably right around my age) trying to make conversation with and impress the other guy was pretty amusing, and, I don't know. I just got into some sort of zone. The pace was easy, I was trucking along, and when the treadmill decided to automatically go into "cool-down" mode before I was done, I was shocked and annoyed. I restarted it for the last mile I had to do, and, to be honest? I was again sort of sad when the workout was all done. I felt like I could have kept going all day long, if it weren't for that whole "work" thing.

I can't explain it - maybe the planets have aligned just so for me this week, or maybe all the hard work I'm putting in is starting to produce noticeable results. Either way, it's been a great week for running around here so far, and I'm getting excited about my training all over again.

Posted by Dawn at March 8, 2006 12:08 PM

Comments

Posted by: ShoreTurtle at March 8, 2006 12:46 PM

Posted by: jeff at March 8, 2006 06:03 PM

Posted by: Dianna at March 12, 2006 11:21 AM