Notes
Mediocre effort but the goal for today was still accomplished so I'm certainly not down on myself too much. There's no doubt that I'm in better shape than a 59:05 physically. I think 59:05 is a pretty accurate measure of where I am at MENTALLY though. I was never able to get myself out of the comfort zone today. Early on I let Enright and BS get away from me. Admittingly we were going faster than I had planned but I think the attitude that let them get away really captures my attitude for the whole effort. At this point, that's okay. I need something like this to kick me in the pants and wake me up. I need something to remind me how important it is to push myself out of my comfort zone in my training runs. All winter I have been very good about getting out the door, staying consistent despite the weather and even adding on mileage. I haven't gotten the pace of runs get too uncomfortable though. The hardest I have pushed has been on fatleks. They are useful for stimulating anaerobic while still getting distance in but they allow you to yield to your desire to back off. I have 3 week before I race again, just over one month until river to river and about 2 months until Rockford. I think I am going to make a few alterations to my regime that will force me out of my comfort zone more. Instead of "random" fatleks on Monday I'll do timed ones, or maybe even hill repeats. I'd like to get a 4x3mile workout in at somepoint over the next few weeks to. At the end of the day I just need to remain consistent and build upon the foundation I have already laid down. Today's effort is, as Al would say, something to build on. One of the best things about being an "experienced" runner is that you never get too up or too down. I've had sub par season openers like this before and made huge jumps in a short period of time. In college I remember running about 10 flat at Iowa for a two mile and 15:35 for the 5k about 3 weeks later at Oshkosh. A few years ago I ran the 5k at the Old Fashioned Track Meet in about 16:50 and then ran about 34:00 at one of the last chance meets. My second 13.1 at Chicago in 2005 was faster than the half marathon I ran to get ready for it about 6 weeks out. I expect to follow the same pattern this season. One final thing to note is where my fitness has been over the last 9 months or so. Last April I got hurt and was out for about a month. Then I spent 3 months in Albania, running about 25 (easy) miles a week. That trip ended with 2 weeks of no running which brought me to August. Starting August in crap shape I improved fitness every month up until February when I spent most of the month trying to avoid a stress fracture. For the past 2-3 weeks I've been back on track and feeling like I'm about the break though. This effort therefore marks the fact that I've come a long way over the past few months but still is indicative of what I am capable of doing in the near future.
Splits
1/2 mile - 2:54
1 mile - 5:42
2 mile - (missed)
2.5 - 14:20
3 mile - 17:23 (11:41)
4 mile - 23.29 (6:06)
5 mile - 29:12 (5:42) (14:52)
6 mile - 35:17 (6:00)
7 mile - 41:24 (6:06)
7.5 -44:12 (15:00)
8 mile - 47:22 (5:58)
9 mile - 53:28 (6:05)
10 mile - 59:06 (5:37) (14:54)