These are my feet after Saturday's 18-miler in the RAIN. I know it's a bad picture, but I want to point out that I am not tan.I am MUDDY.
And COLD.
And HAPPY...
I expected rain on Saturday, and weighed the pro's and con's of getting out there first thing vs. waiting till there was a break in the weather. The need for more sleep and the fact that I needed to take Leopold to get his pinewood derby car cut out was the decider- I waited. (Some nice parent was willing to bring in his band saw and help the kids cut the shapes of their cars out on a Saturday morning. So nice. But really, would yould you expect any less from Scouts?).
So, of course, there's no rain until riiiight before 3:00, as I'm getting ready to run. Great. So I drive to Carrier Park since I have a 15 mile out-and-back route that's fairly flat, leaving me with just 3 miles to run once I get back to the Park. As I park, it starts pouring. Oh, well. I was slightly cheered by remembering a couple of breakthrough runs last training cycle in downpours like this. Perhaps today will be a good day...
As I started out, I noticed I felt very strong and ready to run. Things like that get my attention. A couple of miles in, I realized I was going to change my Progression run to a Steady State Run to take advanage of how I was feeling. Normally, I don't make changes like that. But occasionally, there are moments where you just know that changing something is the right thing to do. This was one of them.
For the first 15 miles I averaged 9:31 pace:
9:36
9:39
9:27
9:31
9:31
9:39
9:00
8:38
9:18
9:28
9:32
9:34
9:34
9:33
9:35
When I got back to Carrier Park ...
I was tired. *
My thumb was bleeding. **
My legs were done.
And I think, "Perfect time to test Marathon Pace".***
9:03
9:07
9:09
Now. I. Am. Done.
I am a Steady State Progression Running Master of Efficiency (SSPRMOE***)
* Duh!
** My nails turn in to rice paper after 2 hrs. in the rain. Something as simple as tying a shoelace is enough to tear them down to the quick.
*** Thank you everyone for your posts when I was contemplating the downward adjustment of my marathon pace. I do believe the sub-4 dream is still alive.
