Running is the kind of sport where you can progress over long periods of time and see great results, which reinforce that you are on the right track. Then you have a subpar run and shivers of panic rifle through your mind. What’s wrong? What did I do differently? What kind of impact is this going to have on me? How do I fix this? Etc. Or at least that’s how my feeble mind works. On the neurotic scale of 1-10 with 10 being a sneeze away from Bellevue, I’m probably an 8 or 9. I tend to be a worrier, paranoid, whatever you want to call it. If you have been a long time reader of this blog, this is no revelation. I’m the guy if good luck comes my way, I am already looking around the corner for the bad luck to even it out. Not great, but I do deal with it without the aid of pharmaceuticals or meaningful levels of booze.
Thursday night was kryptonite for a worrier like me. Emotionally, I was in good shape later that night, all day Friday (rest day) and even going through my pre-run routine today. I overdid it and needed to pull back a bit. Cool. When I hit the streets and later the dirt for a 12-mile easy run, the anxiousness bubbled up. Why? I felt like crap, again! No obvious signs of trouble. No aches. No pains. No heavy legs. No issues with breathing. Nonetheless, even during the initial phases of the Grandpa Shuffle, sluggish could not capture how I felt. Pace was in the range of what I intended low 9s. It’s one thing to shuffle to get the junk out after hardcore speedwork or big distance, but this week really has not involved either. So as I muttered along, I thought that maybe I was slightly dehydrated despite drinking quite a bit before I left the apartment. Since the fountains are back on in parts of CP, I briefly stopped for a drink. After another couple of loops and no change (mile 5), I decided it was time to GU if I wanted to push thru for a little distance.
Magic. I’m not sure if was the caffeine from the GU or sweating out whatever had been lurking inside or a combo, but it finally came together. There was no effort required and the pace started dropping. When I mean no effort, I mean nothing. I would almost describe it as runner’s high … which I’ve only had once or twice, but never during a run. More likely, it was the emotional rush that came from the realization that I’m not broken. I continued my loops and ran into a bunch of teammates … the crazy quick ones. (One day soon, I’ll be able to run with them.) Since the effort was so low, I decided to go for the full 13 … coach said 12-13 on soft surface. I abided by both directives and cut it off at 13 at 8:45 pace.
Despite today’s back to normal run, I still believe Thursday night was more than just a subpar run. I need to revisit my mileage amounts. 175m/mo. is likely too much given the intensity of most of the workouts. I’ll need to ask my coach about this issue. I’m still in taper mode with more rest days coming, but definitely feel better after this morning. If I didn’t have a race in 7 days, none of this would matter as much, but I do. Whew!