Good morning! Hope that your weekend is off to a great start. Mine is off to a great start with the exception of missing Sarah. Myles and I miss her very much, but we pretend she's here, talk to her, and follow all rules. :-)
Today was a GIGANTIC step forward for me in my marathon training, as a ran the Dick Lugar 10K this morning up at Butler. My goal for today was to run a 7 mile warm up, the 10K race, and then a five mile cool down so that I could hit 18 miles for today. My other goal was to run the 10K at or ahead of marathon race pace and to finish strong. Let's be honest here. The last race I ran, The Ripple Effect, left a bad taste in my mouth. When I talked about that race it was not that I was upset with my time--the time was actually pretty good--rather it was that I was FURIOUS with myself for the finish--breaking mental concentration, missing my time goal, and letting someone pass me at the end. Today...I really did not want that to occur.
Senator Dick Lugar was at the start of the race and he got us going. Side note: While I'm not a Republican it was cool to see a Senator in person and he seemed really nice. Anyway, at the start there were a couple hundred of us lined up and it was clear we had some speedsters from IUPUI and Butler. I made an intentional effort to go out at a reasonable pace and I was in about 13th place at the mile. As I was running today, I just felt strong, relaxed, and in control. I knew I was running a good pace, but I was not really catching anyone--I passed two people between mile 1 and 2, but spent the last four miles about 15 seconds behind the group in front of me. I just decided to run my pace and focus on running the best 10K I could rather than running to catch them really quickly and risk going into oxygen debt. When I hit the third mile in 16:58 (my goal was 17:30) I was feeling good and really knew that I had a chance to break 36 minutes--something I've accomplished only a couple times in my life. I kept at it and mentally was able to focus and when I hit five miles in 28:50 I knew if I did not repeat what happened two weeks ago that I'd break 36 minutes. I ran well the last 1.2 miles, held my pace, and finished in 35:55, a 5:45/mile pace. There was NO repeat of the Ripple effect, as the person who finished after me was about 2 minutes behind.
Today was a great indicator that my hard work over the past few months is really paying off. On June 7 I ran a five mile race in 31:45 and felt awful. Today, at the five mile point of the 10K I was at 28:50 (2:55 faster than in June), and I ran 18 miles for the day. I'm really pleased with the effort, with the hard work, and the result. Today once again reminded me of why I love this sport--there is no immediate gratification and it takes some time (sometimes months) to find your potential, but when you have a day when you run to your potential then it just is a fantastic feeling. In running, there are no shortcuts and you earn what you get. No one can take from you what you earn and no one can give it to you either. It's an honest sport. A tough sport. And...it's something I love dearly.
Today should be a great football day. You've got the Cats and Cards fighting it out in Lexington. The Hoosiers and Bulldogs have winnable games. And...the FSU/OU and ND/MSU games should be good. Have a great day and happy running to you...
No comments:
Post a Comment