I ran in the hottest part of the day again, not by design. I just couldn’t peel myself from work and leave until what I had to do was complete. I couldn't step away unless I was in a good stopping point. The trade-off was running in the heat. It was around 74 degrees luckily there was a breeze so it was not as bad as I thought. I had six miles to complete. I started out slow but I gradually picked it up without even being conscious about it. That’s a good sign. I went along with what the body wants to do. I was in a groove with U2, Arcade Fire, Mary J Blige, Chris Brown, etc.
My lunchtime route happens to be the start of the SLO Marathon course. Isn't that sweet? The first 4 miles is hilly. It’s going to be a challenging course for sure. I am liking this route because the hills are just relentless, especially as an out and back course. For a 6-miler, I typically turn around on the 3rd mile. There’s also a nice fountain strategically placed near mile 2. I don’t have to carry a water belt, just one flask on one hand and I refill it when I pass through the church twice. The good thing about this course is there are lots of options. You can turn a street for easier days or keep going up for the days you want to push it. Last week my pace was 9:18 for the same course. Today it was 9:15. I shaved of 3 seconds per mile. I wonder if the difference was running the shakeout run of one mile yesterday? Last week, I just cycled and didn’t run afterwards. I wonder if the one miler speeded up my recovery which enabled me to run faster today. I’ll have to make a note of that. But I imagine it can’t be that easy isolating this factor. There are so many variables to how you perform from one day to the next. It could be due to changes in the diet, sleep, workout intensity, rest, etc. But it sure helps writing things down so we can isolate patterns.
I’m still relatively new to writing running journals. I started my journaling right after New York City Marathon last year. When I re-read what I wrote in the journal, especially about my piriformis issue, it makes me cringe to this day. Whoa! It’s right there, I’ve complained about the pain almost every run. I paid no mind to it. I was so eager to move forward with the training that I never looked back to the days before. I even highlighted it and now it really jumps out. Why didn’t I pay attention sooner? Hard lesson to learn. I would have preferred to lay low for a few days than be sidelined for weeks and pay chiropractor bills up the the wazzoo who knew little of the source of the problem by the way. I’m a little slow on the uptake. I’m working on it. But now I know.
Awesome work today, I even ran a negative split. That means I ran the 2nd half faster than I ran the first half. I think I'll reward myself with a juicy burger. Oh wait-- I already did that last night!
Happy Running!
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