Running Slow

 Running  Comments Off on Running Slow
Sep 212012
 

I was reading a great thread on the runningahead forums  about impatience with running improvement and how important it is to SLOW DOWN and run a lot more miles over a lot of years to get a lot better. I was suprised to see people who run 1:30 half marathons say they run the majority of their weekly miles at a 10 minute pace. Proportionally that would be me running the majority of my miles at a 11:30 pace or even slower. I average about 25-27 miles a week running and I would love to bump that up. But to do that I would need to run “easy” miles, which means conversational pace… not “I…am…talking…(gasp)…in…bursts…as…I…run…(gasp)”. Truth is I really enjoy “easy” runs… I notice the scenery more, get my heart pumping, sweat going (eventually) and recover enough to do it all again the next day.

But the ego… the ego.. is embarrassed at posting 11:45 mpm pace times. It is so stupid because honestly no one cares how fast I run. Non-runners don’t understand paces and speeds and other runners really care about their own issues. So why do I care what people might think? I am not even sure that is the whole dynamic… If I don’t run fast today then I won’t know if I can run fast. or what my limits are, or if I’m improving, etc. blah.. its such a confusion for me. I think it is because running is important to me and I take it seriously, and I feel part of a community of runners (like on here) that feel the same. A 11:30 easy pace is what I used to run 2,450 miles ago, except that was my best pace. To start logging 40 miles a week at that pace seems… hard to take.

Long run at dawn

 Training Log  Comments Off on Long run at dawn
Aug 052012
 

I had set up everything the night before:

  • Clothes
  • GPS watch all charged
  • heart rate strap
  • iPhone charged
  • Dual 22 oz water bottles washed
  • Headphones located

I set the alarm for 4:30 am and was up and out the door in 15 minutes after making my usual pre-run shake.  When I got to the parking lot at the head of the Peabody Independence Bike path there was nobody there… just the way I like it.  It was brutally muggy, 80 degrees with a heat index of 92.. which is *not* the way I like it.  I kept the music off for a while so I could just enjoy the sounds surrounding me.

I saw rabbits all over the place as well as deer, geese, frogs, swans and a ton of birds.  I kept the pace low and steady and only stopped a few times to take pictures. After a while I switched to an audio book I have been enjoying and lost myself in the run and the book.

It was so muggy and hot eventually my sweat overcame the “moisture wicking” properties of my shirt and I started chafing.  I should have taken the shirt off but instead I ignored the symptoms and ended up paying with that awful runners penalty: bloody nipples.