Sunday, September 8, 2013

40 Days to Better: Day 7

No running today.  I'm taking a day of rest after 20 miles yesterday.  And the fact that I had the day of rest today planned was one of the reasons I took two hour and thirty-six minutes to run yesterday.  There is only so much time to work out on a weekend.  Today will be filled with other activities--catechist preparation for Sunday school starting next week, church, cleaning, etc.

So, what will I reflect on today.  I actually did something yesterday that I rarely do. My first mile was 7:48.  My overall average was 7:48.  My slowest mile was 8:03.  My fastest mile was 7:36.  The number of miles that were within 5 seconds of 7:48 (so 7:43-7:53) was 15 out of 20.  For me, that is an incredibly consistent run.  The 8:03 was climbing up Cold Spring from Falls to Roland and Roland up toward Northern Parkway.  One 7:36 was the final mile (glad to be done) and the other was immediately after the 8:03 (seeing if I still had something left half way into the run).

My legs are still a little stiff this morning so that I could use a little self-massage with one of two devices I have, but I have to say that I felt great.  Partly the temperature in comparison with the last time I raced that distance when I had a complete fail going from from sub-7:10's early to 8:40's by the end.  And even in comparison with some of my long training runs for Boston.  I drank less than 10 ounces of water while running (made up for when I finished) and I had no nutrition while running.

And today I feel pretty good.

What does this all come down to?  Running smart.  I finally (somehow at age 43) have figured out how to keep a pace by myself.  I hope to take that into my running future.  And it shows the importance of not going out too fast or too slow.  And it shows how important it is to have that sense of pacing.

And I can take that into other things in life.  Pacing at work.  Pacing in parenting.  Pacing in marriage.  Pacing in volunteer activities.

I don't know why after all these years of running I have finally demonstrated that I can do this.  But it is a great lesson for life.

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