About Ready To Throw This Piece Of Junk In The Garbage!! :)

Another day another day not as good as planned.  Yesterday was still long run Saturday, so I got in around 2.75 miles in before the race... or as I call it run, with a bigger group.  I surely was not racing anyone, except maybe myself a bit, and really I think for me the wind had the last laugh.  On this day I was not disciplined, I constantly felt like I was breathing a bit too hard for what I was really trying to accomplish.  Even at mile 1, I kept putting the brakes on, as a matter of fact I kept putting the brakes on all day.  I'd find myself perhaps breathing just a bit harder than I wanted. Trying to pr puts some pressure on you.  Last year when doing this race, I knew I was going to pr, because I had no fast halfs.

The Mile markers were all jacked.  I hit the first one at 7:20, and thought, umm, that I am pretty sure is not my pace.  Then my times at the markers started looking good.  I was sub 8:00's through 4 I think, and then somehow I hit a 9:00 or something at mile 5??  Umm no, they were just jacked, so I had no idea what I was doing.  I hit mile 6 at 49:00, which is 8:10's, and I think I picked it up a bit there.  I felt pretty good, and I thought I have a 10K pr.  I never broke 50 before.  I was feeling pretty good about myself, until about 6.5 miles when I realized a 10k = 6.2, not 6.1!!  :)  So I was close to a 10K pr.  :)  So now you know to be safe, you don't want me to do brain surgery on you while I am running.  I don't care if I stayed at a Holiday Inn or not.  Find a real doctor, not just one who doesn't play one on tv.  :)

I really learned nothing on this day about my marathon pace.  I know it isn't 7:20's, and to be smart I should do the half in maybe what I ended up today in, and that is 8:18's.  Even though I tried to kick a bit starting at mile 9, that kick was 2 miles against a very stiff breeze, so it definitely wasn't a still air kick.  Not that I was that strong either, because people were passing me, and I thought my legs were moving pretty good.  The wind seemed to be the worst as you were running to the North, but I think it had a detrimental effect as you were running West too.  So we will say from mile 6 to mile 8 was a challenge.  Once you hit mile 9 you had at least 2 miles against the stiff wind.  To me it just seemed like the wind was just little body blows trying to make you not strong.  I remember that windy Kent City 15K, that was nothing but a hill and wind fest.  Jim kicked our asses on that one.  I let Jerry go, and caught up to him at the last mile.  I looked up the time there, and I was probably 1-1/2 minutes slower on this day at the 15K mark than I was at the finish line of that race.  That had more hills, and probably just as much wind.  I was done though, here I still had a little under 4 miles left.

Oh well, I didn't learn too much on this run.  I need to go slower for my full.  KEEP THE BRAKES ON!!  I am usually good at that, but now I realize I am racing myself, so harder to be disciplined.  Last year I didn't really have to race myself, because I was kicking that person's ass easily.  Now it is a bit harder.  Am I slower than this past Spring??  maybe a little.

Still some good stuff.  One is this time last year I was breaking down.  My shins were not in a good spot.  I feel fresh right now, so I can still train a bit.  Maybe add a day or two.  I am not sore at all after yesterday's run, so that is good. That really is the most important thing to me right now.  I still have time to add some fitness, and next week I definitely plan on getting another 20 miler in.

So here, I guess I didn't learn much.  I know a bit more today than yesterday.  I have time to pick up some more fitness, and realize my own desire to pick up pr's will make me less patient, and more concerned about my mile splits.  I'll need to throw that out.  Get to 13.1 comfortably, and from there chop off miles until 17-18, and go from there.  I can lose a lot from 20 on, but if I can make gains than that would be sooo huge.

This shit is hard!!  A lot of thought goes into running.  SHEESH!!  Oh yeah, one other thing, and this is big, trust me I know.  The main goal is to get to the marathon healthy.  Mission accomplished!!  I have been on the other side of that one before too, and luckily I passed that hurdle.  So on we go.  Still work to do, and stuff.

Couple notes, little Cathy won the dang thing.  PR'd, and broke 1:30.  YIKES!!  Not  bad for 42 years old.  Our AGM at our store Omar asked me about a week ago, if he should run a half.  He said if I can run 8 miles should I sign up for the half??  I said yeah.  He has done one other race, and that was the Riverbank 5K this year.   He did it.  I thought he'd run 10 minute miles, and he ran like 1:57.  Sub 9's for 13.1.  That to me was a complete shocker.  I am thoroughly impressed with that.  Can I run 8 miles non-stop one week, to a sub: 2 hour half??  Not too shabby.

That is it for today!!!  :)

Thanks for reading!!!  :)

Hope Everyone has a Great and Awesome Day!!!  :)

xo's!!!  :)

Love You All!!!  :)

p.s.  I turned the engine off between mile 11-11-1/2.  The pr was not going to happen, and I still have more important races this year.  So my time definitely could have been quicker, but don't really care about that.  At that point no pr, than it is all training run from there on out.  :)