January 8th: Why Do I Go Faster When I'm NOT Feeling It?

Why is it that my faster runs come when I'm least in the mood?

Not sure what was going on this morning, but I had a little sniffle -- probably from all the forced-hot air from the extreme cold -- and I was kinda tired. And it was still 9 degrees when I left the house at 6:20. Really, it was just the kind of morning where I would've preferred to stay in bed an extra hour rather than hit the treadmill. But marathon training is all about consistency and routine, so I did it. Unhappily.

My original plan was to go 6 miles at a pace similar to yesterday's -- somewhat slower than my goal race pace. And I did that for a little while. But as I said, I really wasn't feeling it today. So what did I do? Gradually increase the speed so that by the end of the run, my overall pace was exactly race pace (9:09 miles). I think that on days like today, I just want to get it over with, and I'm willing to go faster to make it be done. But it's still weird -- you'd think if you were dragging, you'd drag some more. Nope, not me.

I will say this (which I think I've said before): It's not the worst feeling when you get through a run that you really didn't want to go on. When everything is feeling great, running is easy. When it gets hard, perseverance is a good thing. Also, the level of crappiness I was feeling would probably have been unnoticeable to a pre-fitness Andrew. That I'm getting more in tune with my body is also a good thing.

I'm writing this while sitting on the couch

The other kind of crappy thing today is that I can't do 6 miles at Work Out World on a weekday and hope to make the train. So that meant I had to work from home, unless I was willing to get to my desk after 11:00 a.m. I don't hate working from home, but I prefer to be in the office, where I can be in the middle of things and have a better sense of going on. Nonetheless, I've warned my boss that this is going to be more and more likely as I get deeper into the training. An outdoor 8 miles will probably cost me the same amount of time and put me in the same basic position, and I really just can't start any earlier than I already do.

Well, if there's a silver lining, I can take it easy tomorrow. I did a pace run today, so I'll probably just bag the interval thing and do an easy 4 miles, and maybe if there's time get 10 minutes of core work done. I've decided not to turn the weekend into some kind of brain-buster -- I'm just going to flip cross-training and long-run days so I can do the NJM training run in Long Branch on Sunday.

Total miles since starting the blog: 216.7