Momentum ends Week 2- 25 miles
Friday, the 11th, was an easy followup of 2.2 miles around the neighborhood in 25:52, an 11:45 pace. I was surprised at how easily the run went. I was certain that Saturday’s run would be slow and/or short. Still, I went up to Brick Reservoir on the 12th to enjoy the remnants of unseasonably warm weather and see what happened.
What happened was a near repeat of the previous Saturday. I felt good, loose, and (for me, now) fast. I blew through the 1.6-mile first lap in 18:56, then in 19:15 and 19:30. After 4.8 miles I was thinking of running 2 more laps for 8 miles total. Coach jumped into my head to short circuit that daydream with my calendar in my mind’s eye. There was a big “12!” circled in red just two days ago, the longest distance I’d covered in over two years. The target for this whole week was 22 miles; if I ran 8 miles on this day, it would be 22.2 miles IN THREE DAYS!
No matter how good I feel on any given run I know that if I overdo it there will be a bill to pay down the line. The next day, week, maybe even a month down the line, the energy bill comes due. That’s why I calibrated each week in the first place. I mean, why not run 100 miles in one week, then put my feet up until the groundhog pops up to meet the press? Because it’s crazy, of course. Racking up the miles too early when it was feeling good would cause a manifold increase in problems later on just as surely as going out too fast in a marathon will cause a marked decline in the pace coming to the finish- if you even last that long.
So I let the momentum carry me around once more, and once only, in an 18:55 lap for 6.4 miles and 1:16:36 total, an 11:58 pace, same as the previous Saturday’s run. The difference is that huge difference on the preceding Thursdays- 3.2 miles on the 3rd and 12 miles on the 10th.
Sunday, the 13th, the energy bill seemed due, but it never showed. I took the 2.2 jaunt in 25:01, an 11:22 pace, a little too quick on the way out and even quicker on the way back. It made 25 miles even for the week, a solid accomplishment 3 miles above the goal. That put me at 40.6 miles, slightly ahead of the 40-mile goal. Not bad at all. Maybe I’d get out of paying that energy bill after all.
Tags: endurance, energy, groundhog, health, jogging, mileage, momentum, pacing, running
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