Sunday, February 15, 2009

"It's Just Emotion"

I had a bit of a down week running.... mentally speaking that is. I had a disaster of a run for last week's long run and I found myself fretting about it. From an intellectual standpoint I know that you shouldn't put too much weight in any single run, however, emotionally I found it taxing that it was such a disaster. 

Which leads me to yesterday's longish run. Basically, it was a long tempo run. I ran 13 miles and after a 2 mile warm up ran 9 hardish miles and cooled down for another 2 miles. The bulk of the 9 miles was run at sub 7 minute per mile with a couple of uphill sections just over the 7 minute per mile mark. I had actually planned on running more of the run at tempo pace but I set myself a 13 mile limit and the distance to the road with a cleared bike path is about 2 miles from my house and was quite slippery. So I used that slippery section as my warm up and cool down area. The exciting part about this run was how good I felt... better than I have felt in a long, long time. I didn't feel myself struggling to maintain the pace whatsoever.

Today, I ran a nice recovery jog for six and a quarter miles. Which actually leads me to the greatest benefit of my gps watch.  The greatest benefit I find is on runs like today - runs in which the focus is to recover and keep my pace down. I seem to have a much better feel for faster paced running as opposed to slower paced running. The gps serves as a nice reminder when I start to pick up my pace too much on a day I should be recovering. It was warmer today than it has been as of late, so it was nice to just get out there today and the watch kept me in check.

So the week was pretty good overall despite early feelings of dread. Emotionally, I think I am back on track. I just have to remember not to make too much of any single run. This goes for the good ones as well as the bad ones.

3 comments:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

so glad to hear today's run was better... Awesome!

Sonia said...

I think we're all dreading going back there after a bad run especially if we think it's going to be hard!! You did great anyhow.

Steven Cohen said...

It's tough to be so hard on yourself, so I'm glad you brushed it all off with a good run. Back in the saddle!

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