Saturday, July 18, 2009

Here I Come Penguins!

It's official after today's race I have decided to move to Antarctica. I don't know what the race time temperature was but it was very humid and at least in the 70s---the high today is supposed to be 86. First of all racing at 9 o clock in the summer is awful. I am an early morning runner and I run best when it's within my typical routine which doesn't involve mulling around 3 or 4 hours in the morning before I go out to run hard. Throw in the higher temps and sun you get at 9 o' clock versus 6 when I'm used to running and it's not too pleasant.

Well anyway today's 4 miler seemed fine warming up and at the start and I was OK in the first mile holding down a 5:49 pace which was the average I was more or less shooting for, though it was probably too fast given that the mile was uphill. In mile 2 I started to get a stomach cramp and just felt crappy, when I went through the downhill mile at 6:06 I sort of lost motivation. If I wasn't going to break my old 23:54 PR, it was very hard to find motivation in the heat. Mile 3 is by far the hilliest mile and I knew I wasn't going to hold under 6 minute pace which meant that I was probably going to have close in 5:40 for the last mile no matter how hard I was pushing in the third. Early in the third mile I saw a faster friend of mine who had decided to stop because of feeling sick in the heat and waited for me. At this point I decided just to run with him more or less and not to push it, there really was no point---it was just too hot, I felt crappy, and there was nothing much to gain. I cruised in the last two miles (and they still didn't feel too great!) and finished in just under 24:50 I think.

Yes that's right I ran faster by almost 20 seconds per mile in last weekend's 5K when I was in the middle of an 80 mile week and had more of a tempo run than race mindset. It was also almost ten seconds per mile slower than I ran 10 miles in April!

I've said I didn't care about what kinds of times I run in the summer and that's why I'm loading on all the mileage etc. but I thought with a little cutback this week I would do better than this. It was sort of disappointing, but at the same time I realize I made a decision somewhere around 2-3 miles that it wasn't worth pushing myself today. I mean I feel like hardly took anything at all out of my legs and I feel like I'm ready to enter another one of my three heavy weeks of training before a cutback week before my half marathon, which at least starts at 7 AM!

Anyway this is why I am moving to Antarctica (might I remind you my half PR was in 8 degree weather). I will send postcards and pictures with the penguins.

3 comments:

  1. Heat and humidity are tough. I'd like to move to NY and see some 70s for a change.

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  2. 9:00 a.m.!!???!!! That is ridiculous. I say blame that race totally on the conditions and move on. I know how discouraging it can be to train so hard and not see results. Just keep your eye on the end prize, not the little summer races. Keep at it!
    Ps. That was still a great time!

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  3. I agree with you about the humidity. I completed a 5 mile race in NH, and encountered very muggy conditions as well. I was hoping to average around a 6:00 pace, but it just wasn't happening, averaging instead a 6:24 pace. That's only 3 seconds/mile faster than the pace I maintained for my HM PR back in crazy. So I feel your pain.

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