LET’S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY

I’m not sure if the last 2 weeks are catching up with me or not, but man I was tired yesterday morning. When 5 AM came, I reset my alarm for 6 AM – telling myself I’d just run 5 mile over lunch. Lunch came and went and I never made it to the fitness center. No problem, I’ll just run this evening. By the time I was supposed to run I had convinced myself that 23 days in a row (and 276 miles) were enough and a day off would be okay.

I really don’t mind a day off every once in awhile, but it really sucks to put a zero in the log book on the first day of the month. I keep thinking; I’m on-pace for zero miles in February.

This morning I managed to get in an easy 8 miles. I tried to pick up the pace twice and turn it into a progression run, but my legs didn’t want to turn over. They probably have some of Tuesday’s hill workout in them – especially since I didn’t run yesterday to shake them out. Ugh.

Then, as if on key, my coach sent out an email this morning with this advice.

START OR CONTINUE YOUR TRAINING STREAK
Endurance performance is highly correlated to training consistency. Athletes who get out the door each day GAIN 3 more months of training per year than those who take 2 days off per week. IT IS the frequency of YOUR run sessions that make you feel like, look like, and perform like the best athlete that YOU CAN be. Look within yourself to find the desire to commit to daily exercise AND mental absorption within that exercise session, to DISCOVER the performance power within YOU.

Okay, stop feeling guilty. Let’s look ahead to this weekend’s half marathon. This week I’ve run 10, 10, 6&8 with hills, 0 and 8 and I feel like I’m cutting WAY back. Then I looked at what I did before this race last year and I feel better; 5, 5, 6, 6, 7 and 5. I ran 1:24:27 off of that “taper.” I don’t have any real goals for this race. I use it mainly as a benchmark to see where my base training is at. Like I’ve been mentioning; my easy days seem at least 10 seconds faster per mile than “normal”. If that translates to racing, it’d lead to around 1:22:15 or my 2nd fastest time ever. I haven’t run that fast in 3.5 years when I ran 1:23:04.

Anyway, it’s fun to speculate, but let’s not get carried away. 3 of my last 4 weeks have been all-time highs, but it’s not like I’ve been running 100 mpw for 12 weeks. It’s nice that people are interested enough to place their guess of my time in a sealed envelope. I hope that’s just a figure of speech and they’re not actually treating this like the NBA draft lottery. Hell, it’s just a half marathon in the middle of winter. Let’s at least wait till Grandma’s before we start placing wagers.