At your suggestion, I am getting over the disastrous tempo from Thursday night. Thanks for all the kind words. Also, after being threatened by Beast (and feeling beat up physically), I bagged the double for Friday and settled for the easy 4 mile recovery. In reality, a double was not in the cards anyway since I stayed later than usual at the jobby on Friday.
Saturday morning I woke up hopeful determined to choose a distance and pace and hold it. It didn’t need to be long or particularly fast. I just needed to regain confidence in my ability to execute for a set period of time. I was not looking to replicate the 5-mile tempo from Thursday (I’m nuts, but not suicidal). Instead, I decided on a slightly shorter distance and slower than tempo pace, but not a jog … kind of a general aerobic pace. The results:
| Type | Distance | Pace |
| Warm Up | 3.00 | 8:23 |
| Steady Running | 1.72 | 7:50 |
| Steady Running | 1.72 | 7:34 |
| Cool Down | 3.69 | 8:44 |
| 10.13 |
Although I got a bit quicker on the 2nd loop, I was pleased with the effort and execution. On an effort scale it was a 5 out of 10, which is what I wanted. No bonking in between or during the 2 loops, so that was a minor victory over Thursday. There are some days where 10+ miles feel like a slog (see below) and others, which just fly by. Saturday morning was definitely the later. I wanted to go longer, but with a planned long run for Sunday, I cut it short. I soaked for a bit in a cold bath (should have dumped some ice in it) and rocked the compression socks for the day.
Sunday was the opposite of Saturday in every respect. I overslept and missed my 6 am wake up and ended up rumbling out the door at 8:30. I would pay dearly for that error. While Saturday was not cool by any stretch of the imagination, I did not feel as if it affected me. After the first few miles this morning, I knew Sunday be a rough workout. I did my best to hide from the sun by running the Bridle P and variations of it, but when I avoided the sun, the humidity more than made up for it. Gah!
I must have stopped and refueled 4x over the course of the 12.5 miles. I made a mistake in not drinking Gatorade earlier in the run … electrolyte reserves were on empty midway thru and I stupidly waited until 8+ miles to pick up a bottle. The plan was actually 15, but it was late, really hot and I did not want to junk up the run for the sake of ego.
Still, it was a decent effort at 8:45 pace given the conditions. If I had got out the door earlier I would have gone longer (15) and faster (8:30 – long run pace). There is always next Sunday.