Friday, October 11, 2013

No rain, pain, or running strain

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles

Earlier this week the weather people on TV were talking about significant rainfall and flooding by the weekend. I was resigned to the probability of having to do my longer runs on the treadmill. While yesterday's run was wet, it wasn't anything like running in storm conditions. I expected this morning to be much worse. Happily, it was much better.

Sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 AM this morning, my energy sapping pressure headache disappeared. Between that annoyance, and the cold and rainy weather we've had, running can be more pain than gain. When I realized that the pounding from my sinuses was gone, my outlook brightened. After looking outside and seeing white, rather than gray skies, I felt even better.

Yesterday's run, while feeling low, was more symbolic than beneficial. Although my headache had cleared, I still held the expectation that today's run would be challenging. I considered not tracking my speed and distance so I wouldn't feel bad about my expected mediocre (or worse) performance, but I decided that I needed to face up to it. Besides that, I'm racing in a week and I have to focus on speed at some level.

Since you are reading this, there's a good chance you're a runner. And being a runner, you know that the first minute of a run can speak volumes about how the rest of your run might go. This morning I was surprised, in the best of ways, to find my energy level at the high end of the spectrum. I knew right away that this run would be much faster than yesterday's, and it was. The fatigue I experienced on Thursday was completely gone, replaced by the feeling that I could run all day.

I felt great all the way through but, due to my business schedule, I needed to cap the length of my run. This was quite a contrast from yesterday when, by the end, I felt like I'd just run a 10K at race pace. It was a nice way to finish out the week, especially one as tough as this. I'm looking forward to my last race training workouts this weekend before I taper down throughout next week.

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