Bogged Down

Today was a difficult progression run. I went out to Forbidden Drive for a 10 miler with the final 5 being hard. I was hoping for a 7 minute per mile pace. Things didn't turn out so well.

I struggled with attire. At first, I was going to go with a short sleeve shirt, compression sleeves and shorts. I switched to ColdGear though, because it was still fairly cold. That was a pretty good choice.

I wanted to go out at a faster pace than normal. I actually went out too fast of a first mile (7:11). I then slowed a little bit. I ran north all the way to Northwestern Avenue. It rained on Sunday, so I didn't expect the trail to be wet. The gravel was still soaked an very soft. Some parts were solid, but there was no consistency. That caused me to struggle through a lot of the run.

I never got any consistent footing and that was frustrating. It didn't allow me to run with any consistent pace either. At times, I really struggled with the footing and hilly combination. That was the case before the final mile prior to picking up the pace.

After those five miles, I was really struggling. I ran an 8:13 fifth mile. I wasn't sure how I'd be able to finish, but I kept battling. It helped to look at my Garmin all the time. I just took it a mile at a time. My sixth mile was a very speedy 6:18. That was so fast.

I just stayed mentally tough. I was planning on turning around at the 7.25 mile point. The goal was to just run hard to there. The terrain seemed better at that point, so I kept going. I actually ran into the worst footing of the day though.

It was extremely tough to finish. There were still a lot of hard hills and I thought eventually one would break me. I held a pretty good pace though. I wasn't slowed until the final hill. That broke me, but I sped up on the downhill when I encountered another runner.

The results weren't what I hoped for, but I was happy to battle through it. It was an important mental run, if nothing else. I'd like to think that I could've run much faster if the ground was more solid. I probably would've also done better if I didn't go out so hard. Sometimes you have to push too much to find out your limit.

Tomorrow will be an easy 6 miler with some hill sprints too. I'll probably just head out on Kelly Drive. I have off from work again tomorrow. It should be a nice recovery run.

10 miles - 1:13:00 (7:18 pace)