Saturday, May 2, 2009

Not What I Had Hoped For

Distance: 27.4 km
Time: 3:03
Pace: 6:42 min/km

These are not the stats I planned for today! My goal was for a 29 km run with an average pace of 6:30 min/km. Dang! I'm feeling disappointed! I was at the river running by 7:30 am after a good night sleep, healthy breakfast and feeling full of spunk. I even had my speedy (Police Half) shirt on and it was nice enough to wear shorts.

I was on target for the first 20 km then my spunk split and left me lifeless. I was at Edworthy, stopped for a bathroom break and sucked back a gel. I took off my speedy shirt to wrap around my waist because I knew it would be warm heading into the sun. For the first 20km I had to work at keeping my pace up to 6:30 but the last 7.4 km, I had to work to keep the pace down to 6:30 which became impossible. At times it hoovered around 7:00 min/km and at times I took lengthy walk breaks. I hate having to say that! My watch was nagging my wrist, my bangs were irritating my forehead, my sunglasses were annoying my nose and that shirt around my waist was driving me up the wall. Maybe I hit the wall! That's it! But that can't happen at 20km when I have had six runs already over 20km in the last month and a half. I even switched the play list on my IPod to rock but at this point it didn't really matter because the ear buds were sending me over the edge!

I was so thankful for this one to be over with! I walked around for awhile afterwards before heading to my car. I had my recovery drink, drove home, cleaned up, had lunch and spent the afternoon on my sofa either sleeping or feeling sorry for myself!

Tomorrow is a new day!

5 comments:

  1. Hey don't worry about one run that hasn't gone as you wanted. We all have runs like that! The important thing is that you completed the distance and you have an experience that will make you grit your teeth with determination when you get to THE big day! It's the hard runs that make you perform well in the end!

    Well done.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by my blog. My husband always tells me that it`s not about the times or the paces, but the fact that the training gets done. You did great!!! You got out there and did :)

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  3. Sorry to hear that the run wasn't all that you had hoped for. Better to get the crappy run out of the way well before race day though! Besides, the bad runs help us appreciate the really good ones so much more. Have a great week!

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  4. It's not unusual to have a poor training run so don't let it discourage you, some days are just tough. And keep in mind that you are probably somewhat fatigued due to (other) training runs, hiking, etc. On the day of the actual race you ought to feel a lot better after a decent taper, giving your legs a chance to rest.

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  5. Eh not all the runs are good and in marathon training as distance ramps up you'll notice some of them sucking a LOT! It'S normal. It's character builder and really the pace is not important as long as you do the distance. It's just a training run not the marathon day!

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