Distance: 12 miles
Course: Hilltastic!
Pace: 10:52 average pace
About this run:
I left the Track Club parking lot with a goal of 10:59 average pace. I had paced better for 11 miles (~10:34ish, I think) the week before, but not every run needs to hit that moderate effort, and I knew there would be hills. The 10:50s is very much in line with my indicator pace chart for a true easy long run, so perfect. And I did not realize just how much hillacious fun they had actually jam packed this course with. With that, my end average pace is a serious win! And finally I can tell the difference .. I can confidently say I could have ramped it up to a higher gear for at least the last three miles if that had been the goal, and for sure this did not feel like racing. There was a long time where I did not know the difference. I ran the course run for Peachtree last year in the same time as I ran the race a week later. And not because I wanted to, just because you don't know much about what you can, or are supposed to be doing when you are starting out.
The other major take away: wow, since when does a 12 mile run NOT put me out of commission for two plus days? I ran 12, and then went on to host Kyle and Michele for dinner without blinking an eye. (Well, maybe except when it comes to grilling salmon, but that's a different issue all together! :)
During this run, I also found myself a new mantra. The one that worked for a very long time was: I love Brandi ... I hate Brandi ... I love Brandi ... I hate Brandi. For those of you just tuning in, Brandi is a co-worker, and the person who introduced me to the Atlanta Track Club. I often tell her she changed / saved my life. Unfortunately for her .. she also became the person to blame for particularly long hills, particularly wet or cold mornings, and just about everything else that is hard about starting to run. LOL. Poor Brandi. But it worked! ;)
This week, I cracked myself up with: come on little duck. The run leads wear yellow visors, and no matter what pace group I run with, I always seem to be most comfortable running right behind the bulk of the pod, rather than tight up in with the group. So I am always that last little baby duck following its momma and siblings along the lake. That mental image of making sure I kept following actually was so cute and warm, it helped me tons! (Sorry, I'm the cute, soft half-marathoner .. lol. I can still run till I puke .. but I like to see myself as a duckie rather than a tiger or a wolf while I do it. hahaha)
The tribe has your back .. and your glutes!
Post-run recovery breakfast
Breakfast with an Olympic athlete makes me feel all sorts of cool!
Sunday
Distance: 3.5 (.5 wu, 4 x 800 / 400 recovery, .5 cd)
Pace: ~10:30 800s / walk recoveries)
Wow. I felt absolutely no 12 miler after affects while out with the Women's 5K trainees what-so-ever. Whether that's a boo or yay, I will leave to you all. But I think I'll call it a win.
Since the 12 miles, breakfast, and then dinner with the run buds took up all of Saturday, I was missing momming on Sunday. My one kid is a bit out of sorts in the boy department. Instead of taking off early for the course run I was envisioning Saturday night, I hung about the house and took the girls to lunch. I also gave my 'come to training, you'll love it speech,' but the best I got was: maybe next week. Granted, I can't cram them in a stroller, but since both can surely keep up, I'm always hopeful that one day they'll take me up on it, and I'd just keep my fingers crossed that they could audit the day without issues. Next year, I really want to get them signed up .. still working on that! ;) Until then, finding and keeping balance is key, and I was okay with leaving the last 5k course run for tomorrow (Monday) with Kyle.
At training, I ran with a great little group of about 3-5 ladies who could run the entire 800s, and with a little pushing, at a very decent clip. There was one participant who I almost thought was about to burst into tears when she looked and saw that her pace was a personal best. #sostrong I never thought I'd find something as rewarding as running, but cheering and helping others accomplish their goals is almost as much of a runner's high as running itself!
Nutrition
Next week, for sure ..
Struggles
I feel like I am struggling with my mental attitude toward running a bit. I want to be the type of runner who approaches the sport holistically. I want to remember what it felt like to just REALLY want to run a race to finish it. I ran for an entire year without a GPS watch. I ran for an entire year COMPLETELY okay with knowing that 90% of everyone that I interacted with was going to run a race faster than mine. It didn't cause me to bat an eye. Just saying, "that was the FIRST time I ever finished 8 miles," was so enough to make me feel like a serious badass! If it took me two hours, I was still like HELL YEA, I finished 8 miles in two hours!!! It didn't even cross my mind to think anything else.
Year 2 brought a different and second consistent source of accomplishment. Every time I ran a race for the 2nd time, I was faster. Heck, every race I ran was a PR for most of 2015. And not by seconds. This year, I'd be shaving 3, 5, 10, .. 40 (whaaat???) minutes off past times.
A good bit of the change was amazing. I wanted to push myself. I saw the hard work paying off ten fold, and I adored the feeling. I found energy in the hopes and accomplishments of others. Narrowing the gap between myself and others was also now within the realm of possible, and I attacked the goal like a champ. Doing so brought me some serious joy!
It wasn't until the end of last year that ..
.. I went to a race, and didn't set a record.
And there is no denying .. there is a component of this running thing that IS competitive. After all, running is the exact place where 'slow down, its not a race' never applies. Its like telling a rocket scientist that what they're doing is not hard. Sorry bud, it IS rocket science .. you're the one person in the world who can't take comfort in that saying. LOL.
In terms of motivation, that doesn't real fair well for the average runner. Consider my favorite race: the 5K. My PR is 27:47. Down from about 45 minutes when I ran my first one in August 2014. If you look at the math, that's ~ -17 minutes in net. In ~1.5 years. For a 5K. That's some SERIOUS joy potential. PR-palooza. Now, consider this .. if all goes well and according to plan, I'd like to be running for oh, another 45 years. Coach Amy Begley's PR is 14:56. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER race at the speed of an Olympic athlete. So that leaves .. at an imaginary case scenario where I approached olympic qualifying speeds .. 11 minutes. 11 MINUTES! For the REST of my hopefully would-be 45 year running career. In 45 years, if I did the BEST possible, and some how complete defied aging! What does that mean? ... DUH, I need to say GOOD BYE to running with hopes of shaving minutes off of a 5K time every time my feet hit the start line!
I need to get there because just running for a personal best will not keeping me running for the next 45 years. I need to get there because there will (hopefully?) come a year when even my own PR is unattainable, set aside to be dusted off only for the simple pleasure of a discussion with a grand kid here or there. I need to get there because there will always be someone faster (and slower) than me. Some of these people will be my friends, and I will like them very much. In fact, people who run very similar paces to you naturally spend a good bit of time with you and become your good friends. People who run either much faster or much slower don't even cross the radar in this field of terrible trash self talk. So pissing people who run similar paces (i.e. good friends) off with stupid competitiveness becomes a very possible "bad thing."
Will I continue to have goals? Absolutely. Whether it be to be at top half of my age group, to receive an age group award, to just finish after an injury .. I am sure all of those will keep me gunning for the finish line. But I also have to keep fighting the thoughts in my brain that, while normal, don't help me.
For example, right now, I already have a time goal in mind for a race I've never ran .. one that I haven't even signed up for. "If" I run a marathon, I already know I'll have goal in the back of my head that I would LOVE to finish in under 5 hours. Having the goal is FINE. Its maybe a perfectly reasonable one at that. Forgetting to celebrate RUNNING A MARATHON if I FINISH over that time is NOT FINE. I am saying this to myself RIGHT NOW, so that there is less potential for brain mutiny later. :) I don't know what my four plus months of training will be like, for one, what race conditions will be like, what hitting a wall feels like, heck even what course I'll tackle, or how old I'll be when I do it. So goal, fine. Be all end all time at which happiness is either achieved or lost, not fine.
This is all on my mind for another reason .. If I don't PR at the Milton Jog for a Cause, (my Hearts & Soles rematch race this coming Saturday), I want to be able to shake it off, and run the rest of my 9 miles for the day with a head hung high. I am saying this to myself early as a step in the right direction. Not because I don't think I will hit goals I set for myself, but because I have to remember that I owe myself even more than that! With this one looming so close at hand, it feels so much harder to actually believe myself, but I have to keep telling myself that it is the same thing!
Up Next
Course run tonight, #10kTuesday tomorrow (hopefully), and then wee, taper. Maybe 2 miles on Thursday, and 1 milers here or there, but otherwise, ready to run!
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