Better Luck Next Time

As a result of not getting my long run in over the weekend due to various other drinking activities, I felt guilty and went for an 8 mile GMP run on Monday evening. After an easy mile warm up just to get my legs under me after Saturday's race and Sunday's off day, I set off on what started as a comfortable run and turned into somewhat of a nightmare on two feet.

I struggled to maintain any comfortable pace the entire time, thinking I was going either too fast or too slow and trying to adjust accordingly. I have a difficult time of pacing without looking at Alastair every quarter mile, and I have been having a harder time of "finding the groove" lately. This could be for any number of reasons, including:

- my legs are tired from all the training I've been doing.

- I am relying too much on technological gadgets and need to do a few runs "on feel".

- I am thinking too much about what I am supposed to be doing and not just doing it.

- the area that I live and run is deceptively hilly and I overcompensate on the up-hills and then carry this over into the downhills, which leaves me practically sprinting.

I'm sure there are a few other things that could also be going on, but these four are what I feel to be the major culprits. And the things that I need to work on before NYC.

Here are the breakdowns for my run:

Mile 1: 7:58
Mile 2: 8:08
Mile 3: 7:55
Mile 4: 7:52
Mile 5: 7:53
Mile 6: 8:09
Mile 7: 8:07
Mile 8: 7:50

You can see from almost the twenty second swing between my best mile and my slowest mile that my pace was all over the place. While everything stayed within a :10 high/low from my 8:00/GMP, I would much rather see less of a swing from one mile to the next. Miles 7 and 8 were nearly :20 apart, and even though it came towards the end of my run, in actuality, this is not even a third of the way through an actual marathon and if I'm struggling this much to stay on pace then like I am now, this could be one spectacular dive.

But the good news is that I have officially started my taper for the Nation's Tri next Sunday. I have two long runs to fit in between now and then, but will do my last one next Monday to allow myself all of next week to recover and get ready for the race. I do have track work scheduled for next week, but am cutting it back to 800/400 repeats to gear up for the shorter 10k distance. This is my A race for triathlon season, so even though NYC is my overall goal, I don't want to negate all the training I've done for the Nation's by pushing too much for the marathon, which is still more than two months away. I have the time to build mileage back up after September 8th, so I need to focus on the next two weeks and not the next two months.

Yesterday was an easy 20 mile ride just to give my legs a spin from the hard effort Monday evening and it felt good. I was smart enough not to push the flats and instead took it steady and kept a comfortably pace (unlike running, I have no problem keeping a steady cadence on the bike - riddle me that one).

This evening I'm shooting for 15 after work and before FD training, but if I can't get them all in, then I'm not going to kill myself trying. I'll have two hours to get done what I can, and then I'm calling it a day.

Happy training, friends!