Running Is A Rollercoaster!!

Ok, I had my pity-party... its over. Really what I needed was some well deserved rest. I have been putting waaaay more miles on this body than I was used to, and my body went into shock!! I am my worst critic, if I don't accomplish something, I'll beat myself until I do... or die trying. I'm impatient too... I want instant gratification. I see all these runners improving their times by leaps and bounds, and I'm slowly chuggin along here and there. But I decided to take 2 days off straight, no joggin, no nothing. I cant believe how well I felt coming back out there. I decided to do me a 12 miler... from the jump, I was feeling on top of the world. I was jogging with almost no effort at all and was at my BQ GMP (pace I need to qualify for Boston) for 9 miles. I could have gone on and on and on... but did a 3 mile cool down instead. This was a feat, because this pace was faster than I "raced" my 10 miler last year. The entire time I was focusing on breathing and form. That was a big confidence booster... now I'm back on high after hitting my low.

Good thing for confidence, but bad timing. 2 days later, I have a 4 mile race in the morning. My legs were kinda spent. I could just tell while I was warming up that it was not all there. But I was riding high!!! I debated whether to run all out, moderate hard, cruise or just incorporate it into a long run. I got slapped with another reality, why pay for a race if you are going to just cruise it?? So I decided to just run "moderate hard" at a good 7 minute pace flat. Getting to the start I was hyped and ready to go. I started at the front again... (i'm starting to like that now).

The gun goes off... Immediately there is a huge hill... DOWN!!! My gut instinct was to sprint it down to gain momentum, but have been warned NUMEROUS times about doing that because u will pay in the end. I tried to hold back. At the half mile mark my Garmin was saying 5:50/mile pace (here we go again!!). So I slowed it down. I had no idea the course profile... but I learned real quick. The next 2 miles was gradual uphill. Around mile 2.5, I SERIOUSLY wanted to walk, but I knew that would pass, plus there was a lil kid like 14yr old pacing me. So finally mile 3 hits and its back downhill from the previous miles of up... RELIEF!! I have this even "pace" thing down, now I'm trying to get this even "effort" thing down. That was my goal of this race, and I think I did it ok. I couldn't speed up on the downhill if I wanted to, I was too tired from going up for miles. But made sure nobody passed me in the last quarter mile.

For the last mile I was running aside this older lady who was pretty fast. She stopped with .25 mile to go and let a couple people pass. She got back on it, and finished. Guess what?? She ended up #2 Masters Female and the woman that passed her got #1 and got the $$$. I felt sorry 4 her, but she could have mustered the last .25!! My official time was 27:00 flat!!

My splits:
Mile 1 - 6:26
Mile 2 - 6:54
Mile 3 - 7:05
Mile 4 - 6:37

So today I do a leisure 13 miler... 1hr 52min. Thats a 8:35 pace. I would normally be disappointed in this, but I'm taking it day by day and getting out of the workout what is SUPPOSED to be the purpose. I know I will have my ups and downs, because running is a rollercoaster... and I run on!!