Concentration...Or lack thereof

Yesterday was a recovery day with runs of 9 miles in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. The morning run felt pretty good, and I actually ran it a little faster than I should have with the Garmin showing a 6:51 pace, but it felt relaxed anyway. I had a decent tailwind for the entire run, so I think that made me run faster than the perceived effort. The 6 miler in the afternoon was done at a very slow pace and there were a couple of miles, probably miles 3 & 4, that just felt terrible. I think it was just severe glycogen depletion as I had that nauseous feeling that usually accompanies it. I was glad to be done.

Today was a 9 miler with 4 miles at tempo pace. I wanted to do a shorter tempo run today for a couple of reasons. First, it isn't often that I get a chance to run in the 5:30-5:40 range in training. I do longer tempo runs, usually between 5:40-5:50. I do shorter intervals usually around 5:00-5:20 pace, but that 5:30-5:40 pace usually gets neglected. Since I do plan on trying to run a fast half marathon at the end of May right in that range, it seemed like a good idea to get used to what that feels like. Also, since I am theoretically still recovering from the marathon, it just seems smarter to limit myself to these shorter workouts. It seems that things start to break down the longer the workout goes. So anyway, the tempo portion went OK, not great.

First mile came in at 5:28 and I thought I was in great shape for a sub 5:30 pace. Then the second mile came along, and it was just bad, clocking in at 5:43. I wish I knew what happened there. I think I just kind of lost concentration, and when that happens, I usually wind up drifting to my long tempo pace. It happens in races too. I guess that's part of the point of these shorter ones. After the second mile, I hit the turnaround and with it came renewed concentration. I rebounded with a 5:33 and 5:29 to finish up with a 5:33 overall pace for the 4 miles. If it wasn't for that weak second mile, I probably would have been thrilled with the run. Oh well. There will be time to work on these things.