A Run Too Far
Sometimes the best workout is a done workout.
I'm teaching until late tonight, so I ran right after dropping T. off at school this morning and will start work later. The course was a 12 mile loop that incorporated the 2-mile 34th St./Lansdowne hill stretch (Phila Marathon hill) and another 2-mile stretch that included the last mile on MLK before the East Falls Bridge and the "Bloody Nipple" hill to the crosswalk before the Conshohocken/Cranston intersection. These two 2-mile stretches were about 2 miles apart, and I wanted to run both of them at least at marathon pace.
Right away I noticed I didn't have much pep in my legs. Nonetheless, I got off to target pace on the PM hill stretch and finished it in 12:10, the outer boundaries of marathon pace. Would have been a little quicker but some knucklehead asked for directions 100m before the finish and I had to slow down a bit as I pointed. The second stretch was nowhere near MP, as the first, flatter mile of this stretch went by in a miserable 6:30 and then I hit the hills. I knew I was toast when I couldn't even get myself anaerobic going up the hill. My legs just didn't have it, and aches up my achilles and calves warned me not to push it. So, as a consolation, I have 13:43 as the time to beat for next time.
After that the run devolved into a death march, where you are spent and just trudge miserably on home. It is one of the ugly facets of training, where you just have to suck it up and ponder the fact that today was overdone. Total time 97:35.
As I usually do when I'm in the area, I ran down Lex St. and paid my respects to the folks that died there. At the end of the desolate block, a Marigold and another, purple flower I didn't recognize had pushed themselves up through cracks in the sidewalk and were in beautiful bloom.
I'm teaching until late tonight, so I ran right after dropping T. off at school this morning and will start work later. The course was a 12 mile loop that incorporated the 2-mile 34th St./Lansdowne hill stretch (Phila Marathon hill) and another 2-mile stretch that included the last mile on MLK before the East Falls Bridge and the "Bloody Nipple" hill to the crosswalk before the Conshohocken/Cranston intersection. These two 2-mile stretches were about 2 miles apart, and I wanted to run both of them at least at marathon pace.
Right away I noticed I didn't have much pep in my legs. Nonetheless, I got off to target pace on the PM hill stretch and finished it in 12:10, the outer boundaries of marathon pace. Would have been a little quicker but some knucklehead asked for directions 100m before the finish and I had to slow down a bit as I pointed. The second stretch was nowhere near MP, as the first, flatter mile of this stretch went by in a miserable 6:30 and then I hit the hills. I knew I was toast when I couldn't even get myself anaerobic going up the hill. My legs just didn't have it, and aches up my achilles and calves warned me not to push it. So, as a consolation, I have 13:43 as the time to beat for next time.
After that the run devolved into a death march, where you are spent and just trudge miserably on home. It is one of the ugly facets of training, where you just have to suck it up and ponder the fact that today was overdone. Total time 97:35.
As I usually do when I'm in the area, I ran down Lex St. and paid my respects to the folks that died there. At the end of the desolate block, a Marigold and another, purple flower I didn't recognize had pushed themselves up through cracks in the sidewalk and were in beautiful bloom.
posted by seebo | 10:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home