Today’s quote is a little maudlin, but it is very appropriate for where I’m at with my training. This 3 mile wall came out of nowhere, seemingly, and it is becoming obvious that I’ll never break it down until I get my mind right.
Since I have set aside the Break-1:30 training plan, I am back to making my own workouts based on what I feel I need at the moment. This morning, that meant increasing my non-stop mileage but trying to decrease my pace. An easy run, hopefully.
Since the Rec Center opens at 6:30am, there is not a lot of traffic on the track at 7:00am. College kids still like to sleep, it seems. But that makes for a very peaceful setting to get running. It reminded me of why I enjoyed hitting up the Rec Center when the weather kept me out of the metroparks last year.
Plus, with the track being elevated, I could watch both a basketball and a volleyball game at different points during each lap until the games ended. No idea who was playing or why, but I was cheering for one random side just to be partisan.
Plus, I had a minor epiphany. I have been using my 180bpm playlist exclusively for my runs the last two months. That has been driving my pace since I am so apt to match my speed to a audible tempo. While that keeps my pace even… it makes me too fast for easy and LSD run days. Ahhhhh…. it all comes together.
As an experiment, I switched back to the old, miscellaneous running playlist I used to use in the gym this morning. And, indeed, my pace is all over the place on the graph, but my pace was also easier to maintain at an appropriate speed.
That’s the BSR way: simple solutions to complex problems.
No more Team Toledo Expo gels in the box. Sad face. I’m back to the standard flavors now. Not that that’s a bad thing, but experimenting is fun and exciting. Today was a return to Vanilla Bean GU. Still good, still not my favorite. Moving on.
After I did my stretches and peeled off my warmup pants, I put on the old playlist (Eye of the Tiger remix popped up first!), hit the Garmin, and went for a run that I hoped would be longer than yesterday.
Somewhere along the way, my mental endurance has weakened. My body doesn’t feel as strong as it did, but my mind is trying to give up every time there is an ache or a twinge. I know that I can push through but each time I have to convince myself of it. It is odd and frustrating. I haven’t had this problem since I started losing weight and getting back to competitive running.
Today, at least, was a victory over my own personal Blerch. I pushed through the wall and extended my distance to 6.3 miles – more than yesterday and a good milestone (nearly a quarter marathon). That’s all I’m looking for right now: better than yesterday and a new goal for tomorrow.
