Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pushing Through a Bad Day

Today was another day with two LVRR activities.  First was the Family Hike at Jacobsburg in the afternoon.  In the evening was Group Run.  It was an all around good day.

I was looking forward to the hike because it was close by.  Unfortunately, it rained even in the woods.  Laurie, the hike leader, showed up with little ones as did a woman with some older kids.  It was good talking to the woman because her older son is going to run cross country for Nazareth Middle School.  Hopefully I'll get to see him run for the high school team in the future.

As usual, it was another fine group run.  The regulars showed up, Kelley, Peter and Jeff.  Some others were considering going, but no one else showed up.  Jeff actually ran early because he had to leave by 6:30.  I felt bad because he is a bit slower and had to run alone on this day.

I took off with Kelley and Peter.  This time, we headed the direction of the 5k course.  Usually we've been going the other way.  It was my idea to go this way though.  It starts with some hills.  The early hills beat me up pretty good and I asked Kelley sarcastically, "who's idea was it to go this way."

I'm not sure what it was, but I felt like crap.  The trail seemed kind of soft from the rain today.  It was also still humid.  I'm sure the fact that I've been running a lot is another problem too.  Whatever the reason, I was feeling awful.

Coming around one turn, we almost got hit by a mountain biker.  I guess we were taking up too much of the road.  We got to the giant hill at the Fish Hatchery and I knew I'd be in trouble.  I wasn't wrong.  Kelley blew way ahead and Peter quickly followed.  I was way back and just trying to survive.

Normally, I fly downhill because it is such fun.  I had done that on the earlier hill, but I didn't even do that then.  I was a little disappointed that Kelley and Peter slowed down and let me catch up.  I would've liked trying to work hard to catch them.

When I got that back to them, I told them how crappy I was feeling.  Even though that was happening, I noticed our pace was still increasing.  I just kept going.  We hit the last short hill at the Robin Hill Bridge and I just dug in and ran hard to get over it.

After coming downhill, I just decided I'd push.  I took off and was surprised that Kelley didn't follow.  She was saying how she felt very good with a rest day.  I thought she'd be with me.  Instead, I put quite the distance between me and her.  I was able to keep a good pace for a little over a quarter mile.

If Kelley was with me or ahead of me, I might've been able to push more.  I just decided to back off for the last half mile though.  Kelley quickly went by.  I thought about trying to catch up again, but decided to finish easy.  I had enough hard running on this awful day.  Peter even passed me before we finished.

Even if it wasn't for long, it felt good to fly ahead of Kelley for a little while.  She's still faster and stronger than me.  It will be good when I get past her.  It will also be great if I can help her get even faster than she thinks she can be.  I said she could go under 20 minutes in a 5k and she just laughed.  I think she can do it.  Maybe I'm not realistic all the time, but I don't have any limit to where I think I can get to, so I should be able to get very far.  That reminds me of the great quote, "whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right."

It was a great workout.  I was glad I pushed hard.  I figured it was perfect practice for a race when I feel terrible and don't have it.  Sometimes you just have to push through.  It can be amazing what you can do.  This pace was close to my fastest training pace to date, but it wasn't nearly as draining as some of the past group runs.  I was amazed that the final mile was run at 7:28.  That was even after cruising for the final half mile.

I'm happy that my shin or whatever it is didn't bother me.  It normally hasn't been a problem before running.  It is more an issue when I'm sitting around.  Right now it isn't bothering me either.  I'll just monitor it and back off if I need to.

Tomorrow I'm still not quite sure what I want to do.  I'm thinking I might do my speedwork on the Blue Eagle 5k course.  That would be in the morning and only if I feel good.  If I don't feel great, it might be an easy run.  On Saturday, I'm going to the Breakfast Club Runners group run.  They are running at the Nor-Bath Trail.  I love when they run close to my house.  I think I'm going to make it a long run of about 8 miles.  We'll see what happens.

5 miles - 41:57 (8:24 pace)

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