A Good Tempo Run

This afternoon my fever was gone and I became restless as the sun came out and the temperature shot up to 12C/54F. I decided to go for a short recovery run. I stepped outside into some of the most beautiful weather that we have had for a long time. I started off at what seemed quite slow, but finished the first kilometer in almost exactly 6 minutes (9:39/M pace). People were out everywhere walking, running, Nordic walking, my pace increased, I finished the second kilometer in 5:05 (8:11/M). I decided to keep up the pace as long as I could and run my 9K/5.6M loop that I use frequently when tapering/recovering.

After my lousy long run yesterday I expected to burnout about halfway around, but I must have been running on adrenalin today, because I cruised! I ended up with an average pace of 5:15/K (8:27/M) for the approx. 9K run, quite good (for me) the day after a long run.

I spent some time today thinking about my long run yesterday. I was quite surprised how quickly I seemed to fall apart after a certain point (roughly 25K/16M). I was quick to blame this on my feeling poorly most of the week. But somehow this is too easy, why didn’t I feel bad before this? I know that my mental toughness is not up to par – a result of different issues going on in my and especially my wife’s life in the moment. Did I simply give up yesterday? This is a scary question for me, am I losing my edge (or my mind)?

I know from experience that when my mind is preoccupied with worries of everyday life that my performance deteriorates. On the other side I know that it is only a phase and when the issues are taken care of the racing will get better. With all this in mind I am going to approach the 50K in three weeks cautiously and just try to enjoy the race without setting any real goals. Have a nice week!