Last 6 Runs
7 miles, 6:45 pace | 7 miles, 6:45 pace | 3 miles, 6:30 pace | 5 miles, 6:45 pace | 6.5 miles, 7:00 pace | 5 miles, 7:15 pace
A text I sent to my dad on this week:
Officially into the worst running time of the year. Every time it warms up and then cools back off I am extremely depressed and motivation goes down the tubes
I stand by every word. Case in point: for the second run listed above it was 50 degrees and sunny on the weekend, and I got outside and enjoyed an awesome long run, my second in a row. The next day brought winds gusting above 40 mph, to the point where when I was running perpendicular to the win it was blowing my legs out from under me when they were in the air. Genuinely alarming stuff, so I audibled into a mile repeat workout. Being outside for 45 minutes in that would have been pointless. The next day, from consecutive 50 degree performances by mother nature, we were back down to 32.
It’s such a difficult mental tease. Having a great run and then two days later coming home from work and the temperature has dropped 20 degrees and it’s grey outside…I never deal with it well. Add it to the list of personal and self-inflicted obstacles I face for training effectively.
February has come and gone, and in the shortest month of the year, I turned in a pretty decent performance. 83 miles, which included the disastrous week off from a bachelor party/extended bachelor party recovery. I got my first workout of the year in, and have generally felt my comfort level with sub 7 minute miles come back to me. A jog is a 7:10 at this point. That’s a good sign.
More importantly, the race season is upon me? As you may have noticed in the sidebar, my first 5k of 2019 is happening tomorrow. I don’t have high expectations, but I am excited to set a bar that speed work will hopefully lower quickly as the weather gets warmer and the sun stays up longer. Goal for this race is probably somewhere around 18:30. By the end of this month, I’d like to lower that to 17:30.
Do you have any races or goals coming up soon to kick off the competitive running season?