Spending all my time training for the marathon, one would think it would be easy to judge how I've been improving. It's not cut and dry as it would seem. For one thing, prior to starting this training, my training consisted of running as hard as I could for as long as I could training for my 5K's. In this marathon training, almost every run is suppose to be an "easy" run. That phrase is open to interpretation, because is a thirteen mile run ever easy? I understand by their definition an "easy" run is one that the pace seems comfortable and you are not pushing yourself to failure. But it seems like an odd concept, run slower to get faster, seriously?
I don't ALWAYS follow the rules and a few nights ago I pushed myself during one of my "easy" training runs. I happened to be by myself and was curious how I'd do. I ended up doing a 10K worth of distance and at my previous best race pace which would be impressive based on the distance, but I picked a route that had some major hills. If I could maintain that pace in hills, wonder how I'd do in a flat course?
The problem with winter and running, there aren't very many races to choose from. But I decided to look and see if I could find a 5K, sure enough I found this one called the Heart Throb. It worked out perfect because almost ever 5K gets run on Saturday mornings (which conflicts with Run Camp), this one happened to be on Sunday. The only downside, it takes place not only in East Lansing, but on State's campus....double ewwwww!
Based on the name, you can tell it's a Valentine's Day themed race. One of the options that intrigued me about this race is couples could enter and prizes would be given out for that too. CT and I seem to be fairly fast together, so I convinced her to enter with me and we'd see how the two of use would do. That was a mistake, but more on that later.
It turned out to be a great day for a race. I was unsure exactly how to dress based on the temps and decided to still with what I had been running in. CT told me I'd get to hot, but I ignored her. Two miles into the race, she was right. I found myself debating if I could get two layers off and keep running, if it was worth the chance, or if I should simply suck it up and keep going. Based on my pace, I knew I was guaranteed setting my PR, so I decided to slow down and suffer dying of the heat. I did cross the finish line almost two minutes faster than my previous best. While I was extremely happy about that, some old guy passed me right at the end and that was ego crushing. I know had I not overheated, I not only could have finished ahead of him, but could even get a better time. So, next time!
CT had her own overheating issues, not to mention she's still trying to get over a cold. I know she wasn't pleased with her time, but when we looked at the overall results I pointed out that she still would have finished first in her age group. I don't think I've ever seen a frown turn upside down so fast! I would have finished second in my age group. So, back to entering us as a couple, because I did that we weren't entitled to the awards for the age groups. When I did that, I was under the impression that as a couple we'd be competing against other couples in our age group, I know we'd be able to beat them. Well, as it turned out all the couples were lumped in one group, so the only way we'd win an award is if we finished in the top three. As it turned out we finished sixth, which I think is damn good, especially when you consider we were running a race on a college campus and every couple before us was under twenty four, punks! Oh, and though CT gave me some grief for not signing us up as singles so we could have walked away with medals, we decided the MSU great and white ribbon on them made them ugly....and we didn't want them anyway!
Call me a believer in many slower, longer, runs make you faster. Prior to even running a 5K, I had dreamed of finishing in the 22 minute range. Not only did I do it, I still think I can get faster. I'd say my heart is in pretty good shape!
No comments:
Post a Comment