Running on Fumes

Yes, today's run was not so great. When I first saw the scheduled run for today, I thought it would be easy. After all, previous runs this month were longer or scheduled on back-to-back days. On paper, this run looked easy: 6 miles with 1/2 mile tempo efforts at miles 3 and 5. Totally wrong!!!

I should have known it would be a tough day when I didn't want to get up when the alarm went off just before 6:00 am. I wanted to stay in bed, and I definitely did NOT want to run. Despite what I preferred to do, I forced myself out of bed. I tried to avoid the inevitable by checking the weather, making lunch, packing my bags since Brenda and I planned to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas at her place (she has the Christmas tree), and even shaving. I finally ran out of stall tactics. I reluctantly put on my cold weather running gear and drove to the track at the local high school. I decided to run on the track so that I could get the mileage right as I did not want to plan a run route and I do not own a Garmin GPS watch (Santa, if you are reading this, please, please, please bring me a Garmin GPS watch for Christmas - I've been good, I swear).

When I arrived at the track, one other person was running on it. The first 1/4 mile was not good. My breathing seemed labored, and I didn't want to pick up my lower legs. The second 1/4 mile was not much better. At that point, I thought about quitting. Seeing the other person running around the track, however, motivated me to keep going. Also, I did not want to have to call Steve and tell him that I was skipping the workout. I imagine he would nicely tell me to suck it up and do the workout.

I was still not feeling great for the next 1/2 mile. After the first mile, I seemed to settle in for the next 2 miles. They were definitely much better than the first mile. My breathing was much less labored. I continued to focus on lifting my lower legs. Occasionally, I checked my heart rate - it seemed high but I wasn't surprised given my breathing. Last week, Steve told me that my heart rate would probably be high for a month or so as my body adapted to the new running form.

By mile 2, the other runner left so I was running alone at the track. At mile 3, I picked up the pace for the "tempo" effort. I tried to focus on leaning forward from the hips to pick up the speed. After a 1/4 of a mile, I was ready to stop with the tempo effort. My breathing was rapid, and again I did not want to lift my lower legs. However, the workout called for 1/2 mile so I continued with the faster pace for the next 1/4 mile. I was super glad when the 1/2 mile came so that I could go back to the slower pace. As I recovered from the effort, I start thinking how I still had to do another tempo effort. I wasn't sure that I wanted to do it.

As I approached mile 4, I thought about doing the second tempo effort just to be done with it. Despite wanting to get it done, I stayed with the plan and waited until mile 5. At mile 5, I once again picked up the pace. I tried to focus on taking deep breaths. This seemed to help as the second tempo effort seemed easier than the first tempo effort. After a 1/2 mile of tempo effort, I returned to the slower pace. The last 1/2 mile seemed to go quickly, and finally I was done.

It was good that the run was only six miles as that was about my limit for today. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because it is Christmas (hooray) AND a rest day (double hooray).