I ran the same exact path today as I did yesterday - a three mile out and back - and when I headed out, I let my body find whatever pace it wanted to go. I wasn't going to push myself today because Wednesdays will be my mid-week recovery runs. Anyone who knows me knows that short recovery runs don't go well. haha I made it a mile before the evil plan hatched! I'll continue on to the turn around at the current pace and then see if I can high tail it back and beat yesterday's time. The whole "recovery run" thing will work much better once I get Wednesday's distance higher than Tuesday and Thursday. But until then...
I hit the turn around at about 11 minutes and had to beat a 10:21 on the way back. The nice part about this course (and part of the reason I run it so often) is that it has gentle hills. My mind works best when you give me small little tasks to complete (i.e. make it to the corner, just to the top of the hill, ease down this hill, final stretch) as opposed to one straight and flat shot. Anyways, I felt great on the way back. I wasn't pushing it hard, but I had it a notch higher.
I finished in 21:07, fourteen seconds faster than yesterday. And to beat that, I felt better today than I did yesterday. Double bonus!!
Keeping my watch on hand will certainly be a threat to slower pace days (I have a lot to teach my competitively oriented mind still), but it's fun to keep track of pace! The true test will be seeing what pace I hold for Saturday's long run (6 miles); 7:45 maybe?
Questions
1. How was your workout today?2. Do you ever have spontaneous challenges mid-workout that you simply can't refuse?
The two goals of a coach - as I've always been told - are to tell you when enough is enough and to make sure you're pointed in the right direction. I need a coach!
Stay fit. Stay healthy.
