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October 15, 2005
Revisions
Confession: I did not race at Fresh Pond this morning. I know I said I was going to, but I changed my mind due to a variety of factors: it was still absolutely pouring rain and continued to pour until 4:00 PM when it took about a half-hour break before resuming again, we have not one, but two leaks in our kitchen (leaks that supposedly had been repaired once already), and I didn't get to sleep until 2:00 AM last night (ok, this morning) because I got a chill for some strange reason and couldn't warm up. I finally got out of bed at 1:30 AM to throw on a pair of sweatpants, sweatshirt, and socks over the shorts and T-shirt that I generally wear to bed. So, when my husband woke me up this morning around 8:30, it felt like I had gone to sleep 2 seconds ago. I burrowed back under the covers, promising myself that I would do a hard tempo run later in the day. Oddly, I woke up again at 10:17--which is right about the time I would have finished the race if it started exactly at 10:00 AM!
A. and I spent most of the morning and early afternoon switching out our summer clothes (so sad) and purging the apartment of all the unnecessary crap we have. We've decided to streamline our life a little bit and are going to have a big yard sale and send a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. So, right now, our apartment looks like a small bomb has gone off in it. But I already feel lighter since we're getting rid of so much stuff.
Finally, we got out the door to run around 4:00 PM; the rain had taken a brief rest and it was just kind of drizzly. A. went one way to do a regular distance run in Chestnut Hill and Newton and I went the other, up to the Brookline Reservoir to do a 3-lap tempo run. I used the trip up to the res. as a warm-up, picked one of the benches as my start/finish line, and off I went. However, as I began my first lap, I quickly began to feel that I had gone out way too fast and that there was no way I was going to be able to do three laps at this pace. So I changed my mind again and instead decided to attempt 3 x 1-lap hard. We used to do this workout in college--it was always our last hard, hard workout before Regionals and signified the beginning of our taper (something I always looked forward to). Each lap is .921 miles; sometimes our coach would measure out the full mile, sometimes we'd just do the lap. I couldn't remember what the old markers were for the full mile, so I just did the laps. Here were my times:
1st - 6:23
2nd - 6:09
3rd - 6:02
I was pleased that I negative-splitted, but I would have liked them to be a little bit more consistent. I gave myself roughly 3-4 minutes recovery between; I didn't time it exactly. I just started a new lap when I felt like I had my breath back.
The path was pretty puddly. On the first lap, I was weaving in and out between them and running well out of my way in an effort keep my shoes as dry as possible for as long as possible. By the third lap, I didn't much care how wet my shoes were and went splashing through whatever puddles were in my way just so that I could run the shortest distance on the inside!
Overall, I felt OK--I definitely felt capable of the work, but my stride still feels pretty awkward at a faster pace. I was pretty tired by the time I was finished and thankful that the way back is pretty much all downhill. For my cooldown home, I really just have to rely on gravity to keep my legs moving, which is nice. I ran about 6 miles total when all was said and done.
I got back to the apartment before A. did and when he came back, he was positively glowing about his run. He had been out for about an hour, so he probably ran more like 7 miles and felt great. It was nice to see him so excited, because I know that he's been frustrated with how long it was taking him to get back into shape and feel good on a run. He said that he just kept thinking about how awful he'd felt just a few weeks ago in the heat and humidity--he felt like he'd traveled lightyears since then!
Now I'm just looking to have a nice, quiet night at home--make some popcorn, some hot chocolate, and settle down to a good movie. Aaaahhh...
Posted by Megan at October 15, 2005 06:19 PM
Comments
Revisions are good! The important thing is that you got the sleep that you obviously needed and still got in a great workout. Who knows--You may have been disappointed at Fresh Pond anyways, because of how hard it was pouring around race time. I think you made the right choice!
Posted by: Caitlin at October 15, 2005 07:43 PM