Thursday, June 12, 2008

BAGGED WORKOUT

Two weeks in and I missed my first workout. I just couldn’t bring myself to run 10 miles last night with 6 at tempo. The thought of doing that workout at 8:15 and then getting up at 5:00 to run with Scott just didn’t sit well. So I ran an easy 5 last night and a moderate 10 this morning. I guess with 16 weeks to go, I shouldn’t be too concerned – but I don’t want to make that a habit either.

I have to be a little careful not to determine how my run is going to go before I get warmed up. Last night I felt kind of crappy at first and talked myself out of the workout. By the time the workout would have started, I felt okay. It’s situations like that that I think separate the good runners from the very good runners. The very good runners would say, “Screw it! There’s a workout planned. Let’s do it.” Instead I come up with a list of excuses that help justify bagging the workout.

I brought in my clothes for tomorrow in case I decide to ride my bike. Nathan, who commutes to work, provided some google maps. They contain a lot of turns on roads I’m not familiar with, so I may just try ‘my way’ first and see if it’s even worth it.

Right now I drive about 22 miles to work. By my calculations, I’d still have to drive 12-14 miles just to get to a convenient place to park and ride. Then the ride would be about 16 miles.

Adam mentioned using the Bloomington Ferry Bridge to get across the Minnesota River, but it’s an even long drive to get to that side of town and then the bike ride from there would be shorter. I guess the ideal situation would be to get near the Mall of American and then ride from there. I need to look at some more bike route maps.

Quote of the day;

“Ah, with the talent comes the temperament.” – Bill Bowerman on Steve Prefontaine

1 comment:

Evan Roberts said...

I'm a useless hack, but one thing I have learned is that if you're feeling uninclined to do the workout on the schedule, warm up, do 1-2 miles working down from marathon pace to tempo, and if you're still feeling crappy, then bag it. This is especially true in the morning (stiffer from sleeping) and evening (tired from work). Unfortunately the work day means most of us can't run at 9-11am which would be just about ideal.