Pace: 10:15s (well, with a recovery mile and a warm up mile and a kind of a long pause and stuff)
Medical emergencies: 2
CC is doing her first half-marathon on December 7, so Coach, CC, and I have been a Training Unit for weeks now. This involves getting up at 5:15, driving to the path in the dark, starting the run in the cold and dark (I know. We are in the warmest place in the country right now. But it still feels cold), and generally getting it done.
Last Sunday was a long run at 8 miles, and man, I felt great. I don't know if it was the good sleep, or if I ate well, or if I had just been putting the right kind of miles in, but it was a good run. Didn't even slow down on the half-mile that is one long hill. (We used to call it the Wild Mile, but now it is Dead Chihuahua Mile due to an unfortunate discovery I made on one run.) I hammered it. Was super pleased with my pace.
This leads me to my plug for my friend Dave's blog. He's a very talented ultra-runner and has begun coaching and has a blog called Coach's Corner with practical information. Also he's a good writer, so the blogs are fun. Anyway, in today's blog, he notes that one's performance at a race depends on our training. Here's an excerpt:
"Between the day we start training to the day of the race, we have a million opportunities to make choices that will either help us or hurt us on race day, and it starts at the beginning of the day. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself:
- Did I routinely wake up early to get in my training run, or did I decide to sleep in?
- What was my diet like? A hard tempo run followed by cheesecake, perhaps?
- Did I have a specific purpose for every training run I ran, or did I just basically run the same pace each run to hit some arbitrary weekly mileage goal?
- Did I routinely skip/modify workouts or cut them short?
- Did I make sleep a priority?
- Did I routinely stay out at happy hour or on a weekend night longer than I should have?"
Wait a minute. What now? I stopped reading at that last one. You should click on the link and read the whole thing, though.
Anyhoolies, today did NOT feel as awesome as my recent 8-mile Run of Awesomeness so I was definitely thinking about what I had done the night before to sabotage myself. Plus, today was Push Your Pace day. As you loyal readers of ROW know, Mo Jo, formerly Slo Jo, can run some slow-ass miles. I mean, I was the queen of them. But now I'm trying to get my pace up, and that means I have to run faster. Coach thought we could do three 10:15-minute miles after our warm up. Here's how that went:
First half mile: I feel incredible! Boom. I am fast fast fast. Woot!
Second half mile: W. T. F.
Immediately after that mile ended, I had an asthma attack, adding a little exclamation point to the end of the run. Had to walk a bit. This was the third exercise-induced asthma attack I've ever had, and they are really not so fun. Remember at the marathon where that lady with the broom tried to suck out my soul? Anyway, I indicated my possible imminent death to running buddies through pointing at throat and wheezing. Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze, walk, wheeze, try to calm down...and hey! I had air again. We decided to do a "recovery mile" for Mile Three, then ran hard again for Mile Four and to the end.
Meanwhile, CC had developed a severe headache and showed up wearing her scarf wrapped around her head like she had a Civil War head injury. She said keeping the cold out of her ear and eye was helping, but not being able to see was not. She looked absolutely miserable--but what did she do? Finished the training run. Because we are committed!
- Did I routinely skip/modify workouts or cut them short?
Not today, muthaeffa. Not today.
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