Pages

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Confidence: back down

On Saturday, I ran in a jog bra
and shorts. On Tuesday, I was in
tights, my warmest shirt, and
gloves!
Saturday's long run:

Confidence soaring! I can run 20 miles and not totally fall apart! I can pick up the pace at the end! I can eat gummy peaches while doing hill repeats!

Tuesday's track:

Confidence in the gutter. I can try not to have a bathroom emergency for forty-five minutes. I can suffer through 200's, lungs screaming, only to see 42 seconds for my efforts. I can wonder why everything hurts, from knee to hip to hamstring.

(The workout: 200, 500, 200, 800, 200, 800, 200, 500, 200x3 - 500s and 800s at 5k pace; 200s at 10k "time", so my 42 seconds = 42 minute 10k. 1 minute rest between each).

Such is running: good days and bad days. I was hoping I'd feel great during the workout, and it would help me decide to run the Louisiana (half) Marathon this Sunday. But instead I feel iffy about it.
What to do?

10 comments:

  1. I think I could have written this same post this week! Lately my workouts have gone great- I've felt good. Then yesterday out of no where- death by 5 mile tempo. I positive split like a champ and it left me feeling crushed and defeated. The only positive I could take away from it was being glad it wasn't a race situation.

    I hope you go for the half this weekend! Shake this one off (that's what I'm going to do) and enjoy the race!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Considering you ran a fast finish 20 miler only two days before hand, I don't wonder why you were feeling not so great... What are your expectations for this race? Do you want to PR ,or is this just another brick in the wall towards marathon training?
    Take it easy a few days before the race. I'm sure you will do well. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I say don't do the race. Let the marathon be your focus right now. I don't think that racing a half marathon would be helpful at this point since your marathon is not far off but I am conservative when it comes to my approach to training...

    ReplyDelete
  4. That sounds like every other workout for me too. I feel like I can challenge Ryan Hall on some days ... other days, I think Arsenio Hall could smoke me (I'm assuming Arsenio Hall is as slow as he is unfunny)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks like you did a pretty fast 10-miler today after doing track yesterday. Be careful with that! I'd take it easy for the rest of the week (SLOW miles) and then if I felt good on Sunday--no injury-feeling aches and pains--I'd do the race. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hm, blogger just ate my comment :( what I was saying was - of course I felt great today after feeling crappy yesterday! I need to work on speed, but strength and endurance seems to be coming back.

      Delete
    2. Yay! That's good to hear. I'll say your endurance is coming back after that solid 20-miler. Good luck this weekend!

      Delete
  6. Been there. Awful run one day, perfect the next. Sometimes I know why and others its a complete mystery. It's not fun to have a bad one leading into a race. But you can always tell yourself you got the bad one out of the way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've definitely been there -- hope to be back to those types of longer confidence boosting runs again in the coming months.

    ReplyDelete