I did my run, so why do I feel guilty?

Today's run (street): 1.2 miles

I know that I give up some performance when I get up and run at 4:00 AM. I know this because I typically do better on mornings when I put an hour or more between waking and running. There's probably a physiological explanation for that. Let's assume there is. Still, it bothers me when I go out and run at a moderate pace and see that I've averaged on the high side of 9:00.

Since I'm tapering for the Dirty Sock run on Sunday I decided to go out fast this morning. The bargain I made with myself was that I'd only run a mile or so. That got me out the door on a day when I really wanted to remain in bed and finish the sleep that was interrupted by my alarm. I took off faster than normal but not in a sprint, as I would have were I doing intervals. I stepped up my cadence after 30 seconds and tried to generate some speed.

I hit the mile mark at around 8:37/mile which is a 5K race pace for me. I really pushed as I completed the loop back to my house and finished my short run averaging 8:28 overall. Good, not great. In the end my satisfaction with my performance was somewhat deflated by the guilt of running less than half my normal distance. I guess that's why we call it a taper.