"Don't wish the time away"

As I was sweating through my first yoga session since June, the instructor said the title of this post. Ok - I know - meditation and yoga groups are full of platitudes and maybe this qualifies. But, maybe the platitude is in the eye of the beholder - or maybe we just all need to be reminded of very simple, yet important truths from time-to-time.
There isn't anything that marks a good race from a bad race more clearly than whether you are engaged in what you're doing versus going through the motions. Once your brain clicks into "waiting for the finish" mode nothing good is going to happen. The instructor's point was - if you're already here why not make the best of it?
A lot of life is like that. Very rarely are we in situations where our mind is completely in the present. Too often we think of ourselves as chess players - always three moves ahead. Not that life shouldn't involve planning and preperation, but first and foremost life is meant to be experienced. If we're always thinking of the next job, the next race, or even just the next day - we can miss out on everything the present can offer.
As for the recent past - I ended up making the executive decision Saturday morning at 6am that I'd rather sleep than drive 45 minutes to a 10k. When I woke up I felt slightly guilty - so, I decided to do my 20 miler. I didn't finally get out the door until almost 9am - which meant I didn't finish until almost 11:30am. I ran a point-to-point course, starting in Dagsboro, DE and attempting to finish at Rehoboth Beach, DE. Well, my calculations were a little off - because at almost 2 hrs 30 mins of running I was still a few miles south of Rehoboth. Thankfully I had brought my cell phone - so, I called my support vehicle (my wife) and impatiently waited it out in the shade of the scrubby trees along highway 1. It was a great beach day - not so much for a 20 miler.
Even though I brought water I was still pretty dehydrated the next day (when it was even hotter). So, I did something I haven't done since June 21st - I took the day off from running.

Last Week
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles 16X400 (first 4 76-77 second 4 74-75 third 4 72-74 last 4 66-71)
Wednesday: 9.5 miles
Thursday: 11 miles
Friday: 8.5 miles
Saturday: 20 miles
Sunday: 0 miles
Total: 73 miles

This Week
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles track workout
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday: 14 miles 4 mi @ T pace 4 min rest 3 mi @ T pace 3 min rest 2 mi @ T pace 2 min rest 1 mi @ T pace
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday: 12 miles 12X400m @ R pace
Sunday: 17 miles
Total: 85 miles

Dancing with Pain (and his little brother Fatigue)

Pain is necessary to sustain life. Without it we wouldn't learn a lesson from touching a hot stove - we'd just think it was weird that our skin was smoking and turning black. Without pain we might try to run on a torn ACL (who would do such a thing?). Lots of athletes are "tough guys" when it comes to pain - they say things like "pain purifies" (direct quote from my high school coach). I don't go quite that far - but, I do think that most endurance athletes have a slightly different relationship with pain than the average person.

Actually using the word "pain" is probably a slight overstatement for most workouts or races. I would say I feel "discomfort" from running, but it's not like a burning poker is being shoved in my ocular cavity. As runners we have to respect "pain", and yet at the same time ignore it to a certain degree. Even if we try to push out pain it surfaces in our running form - which leads to over compensation injuries. So, we try to be both sensitive to pain and above pain. It's an odd dance.

Sometimes even more daunting is understanding how to deal with fatigue. On Thursday I was feeling like taking a nap instead of running a tempo workout. On my warmup I was thinking way too much about how tired I felt - the result? I ended up running too hard - in fact I ended up running most of my mile splits faster than what I ran for a 10k today. I should be running tempo splits at about 10 mile to half-marathon pace.

So what do I do about it? I've still got 8 weeks before the Army 10 miler - so, how do I give my self the best chance to perform on October 4th? Right now - I think I'm probably pushing myself a little hard. Not that I don't expect to feel some aches and pains at this point in my training - but, I want to trust my "coach" (Jack Daniels' book). And according to him - I need to dial back the intensity on most of my workouts.

Last Week
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles 1200 3:54 1100 3:33 1000 3:12 900 2:52 800 2:33 700 2:10 600 1:52 500 1:30 400 1:10.3 300 50.4 200 32.5 3X100
Wednesday: 11 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday afternoon: 10.5 miles 2mi easy 3mi (5:22.2+5:27.3+5:29.1 = 16:18.6) 3 min rest 2mi (5:19.9+5:19.9=10:39.8) 2 min rest 1mi (5:07.8) 2.5 mi easy
Friday: 9.5 miles
Saturday: 4 miles
Sunday: 11 miles Harris Teeter 10k 33:17 (5:29.8; 5:22.8; 5:33.1; 5:20.6; 5:11.0; 5:09.4; 1:10.2)
Total: 74 miles

This Week
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles 16X400
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday afternoon: 12 miles 8X1 mi @ T pace 1 min rest
Friday: 8 miles
Saturday: 12 miles 10k dewey beach
Sunday: 20 miles
Total: 90 miles

Fun weather fact

Today the mean temperature did something that it hasn't done since January 16th - it went down a degree (82 to 81 degrees - mean temp on 1/16 = 36 degrees). It won't really matter on Tuesday night at the track when it's supposed to be ~90 degrees - but, it does mean that the long dog's mouth of a Baltimore summer is slowly moving out.

Not that I'm complaining - I'd rather carry some water on a run than be forced to the treadmill because of ice on the roads, but it isn't exactly ideal for racing. However, I will be racing next Sunday for the first time in over a month. I'm running the Harris Teeter 10k next week in Leesburg, VA. I don't know exactly what to expect - but, I think I am ready for ~32:30. My JD inspired training has been going pretty well, so far. I've had some aches & pains, but nothing major. A cold water bath seems to take care of any soreness.

Today I ran one of my hardest long runs in awhile. I sprinkled in some 2 mile tempo sections into an 18 mile run. Overall I was pretty pleased - but, my second miles were consistently slower - which is not ideal. The big question will be how well I recover - this was my first week of seven planned weeks in a row at over 80 miles. The planned high week is 90 - so, nothing close to as "big" as my Boston training - but, it's more intense.

It's easy to let things get a little out of control with all the guys on the track each Tuesday - so, I think a key will be to just make sure I'm hitting my goal times and not worry about how many guys are finishing in front of me. Summer might be cooling off, but my training for the Army 10 miler is just starting to heat up! (yes, that might be the corniest sentence i've written on this blog - but, give me a break, I ran a hard 18 miler today! ; )

Last Week:
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles 3X(1200, 2 min rest, 800, 90 sec rest, 400, 2 min rest) (3:48.5, 2:30.0, 71.8; 3:44.4, 2:26.0, 72.6; 3:40.5, 2:21.4, 65.5)
Wednesday: 10 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday afternoon: 10.5 miles hills 6X84-88 seconds
Friday: 6 miles
Saturday: 11.5 miles
Sunday: 18 miles 2 mi easy 2X2 mi tempo (5:30.0+5:38.4=11:08.4; 5:23.5+5:32.2=10:55.7) 6 mi easy 2X2 mi tempo (5:27.4+5:38.6=11:06.0; 5:17.6+5:33.2=10:50.8) 2 mi easy
Total: 84 miles

This Week:
Monday: 10 miles
Tuesday morning: 4 miles
Tuesday afternoon: 10 miles Track Workout
Wednesday: 11 miles
Thursday morning: 4 miles
Thursday afternoon: 10 miles Tempo workout
Friday: 10 miles
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 15 miles Harris Teeter 10k
Total: 80 miles