Thursday, October 04, 2007

RFE TR #35

Total Miles Trained For Elijah: 271

It feels like forever since I last ran. Each time I have to postpone my longrun to Sunday, it just throws off my whole week! Here is the skinny:

Since I ran my longrun on Sunday, Monday was obviously a rest day. Unless I want to clump too many runs too close together, I usually run only twice through the week when the Sunday runs occur -- to get me ready to be "back on schedule" for a Saturday longrun. I figured I'd run Wednesday and Thursday so that I'd have Friday off to rest up for Saturday. Well... I got up and got myself to the track on Wednesday only to discover that a) it was raining by the time I got there, which wouldn't have been too big of a deal, except that b) I felt an episode coming on that would mimic Sunday's (i.e. I needed to find a port-o-pottie ASAP). Darn it! So I just went home. No run. :(

So today was my day to 'redeem' myself. Recently on Fdip, Steve read a quote from someone that went something like "Either your training has integrity, or it does not." Well I wanted my workout to have integrity... I didn't just want to "do it." My schedule called fora "Susan's Choice" workout. I wanted to do work at the track. So Coach Terry and I decided on 1-mile repeats at "marathon pace" followed by an 800m recovery after each.

I arrived at the track and was immediately reminded of Shirley's recent post about safety. The track is lit, but it was indeed 5:15 AM or so. So I scoped it all out like never before! Even as I was leaving the sun was not fully up -- autumn is upon us.

My splits were just perfect! I was so happy! I started with an 800m recovery warm-up, then got to business... so the Garmin was displaying miles done half at pace, half at recovery, mostly.

Mile 1: 12:03 (first half slow, second half fast)
Mile 2: 12:12 (first half fast, second half slow)
Mile 3: 11:20 (all done at pace -- and a bit quicker!)
Mile 4: 12:02 (first half slow, second half fast)
Mile 5: 12:07 (first half fast, second half slow)
Mile 6: 11:23 (all done at pace -- and again a bit quicker)
Total: 1:11:10
Average: 11:52 per mile, 173 beats per minute

So I stuck to the task like a champion! With integrity! And I only slowed to walk for probably way less than 30 seconds total, which is huge for me.

My plan for the Worldwide Half Marathon is still not set. With safety issues and an impending out-of-town visitor, the perfect course has not yet surfaced. I'll figure something out.

Elijah is doing well. Here is a photo of him taken yesterday at the hospital while receiving chemo.


3 comments:

Annette said...

Way to get it done Susan!!

I will be thinking of you and Elijah on Sunday!!

ShirleyPerly said...

Great job on the track and glad there was plenty of light. Actually, surprised that no other runners were there.

Glad to hear Elijah is doing well.

Unknown said...

excellent work... as usual!