This was the first week I really did poorly with my running. I've run slow and I've had days where I walked some, but this week, laziness reached an all-time high. I only ran twice this week, making this week's total mileage only 8 miles. Quite the drop from last week's 17.
Today I did my long run of 6 miles, regardless of the runs I missed this week. As I got going, I found that my heart rate monitor was not working quite right. It started out okay, climbing into the 150-160 range, and then it lost the connection. When it came back, it said my heart rate was 128 which immediately jumped to 228. So, I quit looking at it. I have a tendency to start out too fast, and then I use that monitor as a speed limiter, but now without the limiter, it was interesting to see how I did. I still started out too fast, but I lasted at that speed for a little over 4 miles. Then I cratered, and ran less than 3/4 of the last two miles. Overall, I finished in about the total time that I should have, so that gives you an idea of how quickly I was going at first. However, I have to learn to read my body, rather than relying on a digital readout, so this was a good experience from that perspective.
Ultimately, though, it was a hard run because I skipped way too many runs this week. Here are some of the excuses I used with myself to get out of running.
I'm tired. This one is actually relatively legit. You try to be rested when your husband comes home between 2 and 4 in the morning and then wants to talk about his day for a while. The alarm clock comes early on those days.
I'm dehydrated. Also probably true, but not that hard to do something about it.
I need to reread the form chapter. I have felt that I could probably get some good insights for my form runs by rereading that chapter, but that's no reason to not run them the way I have been so far. Or just reread the chapter.
My legs are sore. Actually getting out and running makes this go away.
I woke up too late. Wah. This leads to...
I'll run tonight instead. Ha! We all know that won't happen. If I don't run in the morning the afternoons are even harder, because of...
It's hot outside. This is mostly how I convinced myself out of those afternoon runs when I didn't run that morning.
Better get back out there this week and run past the excuses. Next week has to be better.
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3 comments:
well, you're still a long way off from race day, so probably not a big deal. Having run two, one which I didn't train for and one which I did, I can tell you that making all your runs, especially the long ones is huge. I wish I hadn't needed to suffer through a disastrous first marathon to understand that.
anyhoo, if you ever switch to afternoons and find yourself running town lake, give a call, maybe I can join you for a few miles. no mornings though. mornings bad.
Maybe I'll take you up on that...when the afternoons cool off a little...and I get a little faster. I'm still too self-conscious about how slow I run to run with anybody.
I thought running would be easier lately with the relatively cool afternoons, but I'm dying. (Don't laugh - I'm not in your league) Lately I've only been able to get about a mile before cratering - two miles is my usual. In my case I think it's allergy season sneaking up on me. Keep after it, though. I'm impressed by how hard you're working on this.
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