A Tale of Two Runs

If the Garmin is going to die, it's probably best that it happened now, only a few days before Fathers Day and my Birthday. I mean really…is $160 too much to spend on your father/husband? Kelly? Are you listening?

OK…enough grovelling. Yesterday was an 11 mile run with 8 miles at tempo pace, which has been working out lately to be in the mid to low 5:40 range. I really like this run, because it's below marathon pace but still easy enough where I can get into a groove and cruise through it. I think it's a good strength workout, which is what I'm after in this point in my training. I wish I could say I flew the run and felt great afterwards, but unfortunately, the run didn't go well at all. I went out at a comfortable pace and felt good through 4 miles. At that point, my pace was 5:46 for the run. I knew I had a wind at my back for that first portion, but wind doesn't seem as important in summer running as it is in the winter in Chicago. While it's nice to have it at your back, it's also nice to have it in your face when it's hot out to cool you down a little. So I was hopeful that the second half would be OK.

It wasn't. Since I don’t have the Garmin right now, I can't say exactly where things fell apart, but I think I was on pace through 6 miles, but then things fell apart quickly after that. I wound up coming in at a 5:55 pace for the entire run, which makes those last two miles…well, ugly. I don't even want to think about what the pace was. What was the problem? Not sure. Probably a variety of factors like heat, humidity, wind, fatigue. I'm really just looking at it as coming up 2 miles short, not as 10 seconds per mile slow. There were thoughts of cutting the run short at 6 miles, but sometimes it's best just to battle through this stuff. Quitting can be a tough habit to break.

Today was my long run for the week. With runs of 20 and 24 miles the last two weeks, I decided I was gonna make this week a little bit of a step back for my long run and went with 17 miles. I wasn't sure what to expect from the legs coming off of yesterday's crash, but they felt surprisingly good. I can't get into specifics about pace since, again, no Garmin, but I think I was around 6:35 pace through the first 8 miles and finished with a 6:28 pace. Since I've done this run many times with the Garmin, I know the distanc is accurate, and my $10 fill-in K-Mart watch seems to be doing an adequate job of keeping time, so I think that's pretty accurate. It was nice to have a nice bounce back run today after yesterday's not so great run.

I ran with the Brooks Burn today and they felt great. I might have bought these shoes a half size too big, but I don't think I'll go through the hassle of returning them. I'd rather have them be too big than too small and the only time I really noticed the extra room was when I was going down a steep hill and I noticed my foot sliding forward in the shoe. No big deal.

It's nice to get both of my longer runs for the week out of the way by Thursday (14 and 17 miler). I have kind of a crazy weekend coming up with a graduation party that we're hosting on Saturday and then some more festivities on Sunday. I didn't want to risk dragging all day long by trying to do my long run on either of those days. Hopefully I'll get some quality speedwork done on Saturday and then have a nice easy day on Sunday to get over 100 miles again for the week. I know this 100 miles per week is a bit of an abritrary goal, but it keeps me motivated and sometimes that's just what you gotta do.