Four Down, Eight to Go

The first three weeks of training for Cap City went surprisingly well. As I mentioned, I've moved up to intermediate level training, and so far I am enjoying the variety in the workouts. In the beginner level training I did for the marathon, I focused mostly on endurance and increasing my mileage. Intermediate training includes a variety of workouts focusing on speed, strength, and endurance. I was worried that my lack of long runs between the marathon in October and starting this training in February would bode ill for me, but apparently the interval, hill, and speed training I did on the treadmill all winter did more for my fitness level than I realized. My average times have been improving overall, and the long runs haven't been as tough as I expected (with the exception of the one discussed below).

Week four was a bit tough. My mid-week runs went okay, but when I took Polo out on Saturday for my 10 mile run, I had to mentally force myself to stay out on the trail. I'm not sure if it was the wind, which was pretty strong and unpleasant, or my inappropriate layering, but I was just really sluggish. We went to Hilliard Rails to Trails, which is a nice, flat, long, straight path that can get somewhat boring after a while. The sun was shining, which was a nice change, and the temperature stayed somewhere in the 50's, not factoring in windchill. I was wearing a sweatshirt though, and while it kept me warm from the wind, it also made me rather non-aerodynamic. At two and half miles in, I wanted to turn around. I told myself I had to go at least seven total, so just another mile would do it. As I approached that half-way point I told myself that just another half mile would make a total of eight, and I pushed on. Then I saw a road that looked like it was just the right distance to make a turn-around point, and I kept going. As I approached the road, I suddenly felt stronger and decided to keep going. As soon as I crossed it, however, I wanted to turn back. After checking in with Pippin (my iPod) and seeing that I was at about four and a half miles, I wanted to push just a little further and set my sights on a telephone pole in the distance. After reaching it, I happily turned around and headed home. The total mileage for the run was 9.75. I'm not disappointed that I fell short of the full ten, especially when I was so close, rather I am pleased that I was able to push myself that far through a difficult run when I wanted to give up so early on.