It was Saturday morning, so I met up with the BCR at Eddyside, north of Easton. I wanted to do 10 miles and was planning on about 4 on my own about a half hour early. When I got up and saw how low the temperature was, I just decided that I would wait around and start with the group.
I wasn't even paying attention and didn't have my signal on my watch when Mertz took off. He caught us all by surprise. I ran about a tenth of a mile before it kicked in. Then it lost the signal anyway. I'm not sure if that first mile was accurate, because it said 7:14. It may have been since we were moving fairly fast.I ran along with Mertz and Flo. My legs were already sore. I'm not used to starting out quite that fast either without some warmup. My body was already screaming "no," but I ignored it. I kept on pushing.
Erin joined the three of us pretty early on. I was surprised to see someone else with us. I haven't run with her yet, so I didn't really know how fast she is. She is just coming back from having a baby, so that was pretty impressive.
Between the first and second mile, Erin dropped off. I was hanging on. I was already breathing quite hard. I was kind of surprised because we weren't going that fast. Not fast enough that I should be struggling with breathing anyway. I think I struggled a lot with taking in the cold air.
I chatted with Mertz and Flo when I could. That became less and less though. Finally at about 2.5 miles, I slipped back and told them to go on. I could've probably held that pace for about 5 miles max. It wasn't even all that fast either. It was a 7:35 second mile and then 7:31 third mile. That's still around 20 seconds slower than my average pace for the half. It shouldn't be something I can't handle.
Mertz was only doing 6 miles, so he turned around at the 3 mile point. By now, I resigned myself to realizing that I was going to do 8 miles like Flo. Running 10 miles would've been too much.
Flo circled back around after Mertz left. We ran together. I couldn't wait to get to the turn around and at least be on the second half of the run. All the little hills on the path along the Lehigh were killing me. I sure wasn't enjoying this run.
Flo was telling me how she struggled with a recent fitness test. I can't imagine how I would do on that. All I can do is run. I'm so weak otherwise. She is so much more fit that me. I wish I could devote myself in other areas, like at least working on my core and eating better. That probably won't happen until I plateau in training and have no other way to improve.
We turned around and headed back I sputtered along and felt bad because I knew I was holding Flo back. She's on her taper for the Philadelphia Marathon next week, so this isn't too much of a key workout for her, but I was definitely slowing her down.
Finally somewhere around the 5 mile point, I backed off some more and she pulled ahead. I couldn't wait until I went under the bridge that crosses the Lehigh. I knew that when I got there, I'd almost be off the path.
As I hit the 6 mile point, I was really struggling and fading bad. This where I always mentally give up and relax. Instead, this was the only good moment of the run. I was hurting, but I decided, what the heck let's try to push anyway.
This only lasted for about a quarter of a mile. I gained a little on Flo in that stretch, but I wasn't closing in enough to keep pushing through the hurt. At one point, I burped and felt like I was going to throw up. I've never done that before and this might have been the closest I have pushed to that point. After an 8:02 sixth mile, I bumped back down to a 7:47 seventh mile.
Unfortunately, that was all I had. Flo pulled farther and farther away. I was on my own. Earlier, I saw Sarah ahead of me and I hoped that maybe I could catch her. I never came close. The last mile was a pedestrian 8:17
I really shut it down in the that mile. It was a struggle and I tried to cruise home as much as I could. Most of the group was doing less mileage, so they were already back when I arrived. I ran through the parking lot a little to finish up at 8 miles. That at least put me at 40 miles for the week.
I was so grateful to Flo and Mertz for pulling me along, but so upset with myself afterward. If I had anything in my hands to throw after the run, I probably would have done it. I can't remember the last time I was that mad after a run. In high school track, I won my first race, but my time wasn't fast enough to make the league meet, so I threw my shoes on the ground in disgust. My coach was trying to congratulate me on the win, but I was too pissed. My goal was to get into leagues. It turns on that I later did anyway. That's the only time I can recall being mad after a run, until today anyway.
I'm sure the biggest contributing factor to my poor performance was not resting enough this week. That left me with some sore legs. I think the air bothered my breathing. Also, although it was a little cold, I definitely overdressed. I wore ColdGear, thinking that it would be freezing. Instead, it was more appropriate weather for a light, long sleeve tech shirt. The fast beginning likely hurt me a lot too. I don't run at a pace like this very often either. It's either about 45 seconds slower, or short segments faster. Races are the only long runs that usually ever approach this pace.
I don't want to get too worked up over this run, but I have lofty goals for the spring. I'd certainly like to be right around where Flo is in 6 months. I don't expect to hang with her yet in her fast workouts, but I'd like to think I could keep up with her on days like today that are semi easy for her. Even though my teammates were faster when I ran track, I didn't have any problems hanging with them on normal runs. It was the speedwork where I fell back slightly. I guess I'm not 18 anymore, but I still have that same mentality.
I definitely don't want to cut back on mileage, but if I have to back off from an effort standpoint, I will. I was hoping to run this whole week easy. Instead, I put in 2 hard days. My legs will be getting a lot more massaging and attention as I keep going. If runs continue on this path of being terrible, then I definitely will back off mileage too. I also need to put together a game plan for the marathon. Right now, I'm just running. There isn't any focus on getting from Point A (now) to Point B (3:00 marathon in May). I have to go back and look at some of what I did for my last marathon and compare it to my recent training. Then I'll mix it up and put together a good plan.
Tomorrow, I will be taking the day off. I'm going to shoot some photos for the South Mountain 10 miler. I love that race because it is a straight climb up South Mountain from Lehigh's Goodman Campus. I train on there every now and then. I might even make it up there this week. I'm going to take some photos of the start and then bike part way up the mountain for more photos. Monday, I'll get back to running. I don't have a plan (big surprise). I'll probably do 6-8 easy miles. I did run mostly on paved surfaces this week and would like to get on some softer trails next week.
8 miles - 1:02:00 (7:45 pace)
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