Setting Yourself Up For Success

Not that failure is a terribly bad thing. I 100% believe that good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment (ie failure at something).

With that said, I’ve been having some bad luck and tough times with my tempo runs as of late.  Yes, they have taught me stuff and sure I know there have been mitigating circumstances (crappy weather, lack of sleep). But it’s still never really nice to have to rationalize or justify (not quite the words I want but close enough) things. Especially when you have my mind set.

So I decided that my tempo today was going to be a success.  Given the crappy, rainy and cold weather that awaited me this morning I knew that it was going to be a TM day.  And since this whole training cycle I have yet to do a tempo on the TM I figured that I was okay.  1 session inside wasn’t going to ruin or take away from the 8 I’ve put in outside.  6 of which were stellar, 1 was great given the conditions and 1 was truly “eh”.  Not bad stats at all.

Basically by switching to the TM I was able to avoid the weather and give my mind a break from having to think and have a chance to doubt myself.  Because, let’s face it, unless you’re doing intervals on the TM (or going from workout to warm down) it’s kind of embarrassing to have to lower the speed.  At least that’s the case for me. So I knew that when I  plugged in my tempo speed, that was that.  No changes. And I didn’t deviate at all from my prescribed workout.

Well maybe I did.  The plan I’m following always has me doing 2 or 3 by XX minutes with some rest in between.  But to me that’s not a tempo.  To me tempo is a continuous effort for 40-60 minutes at a hard pace.  So this is how it went down:

• 3.5 mile warm up @ 8:34
• 7 mile tempo (6@ 7:19, 1@ 708)
• 3.5 mile warm down @ 8:34

Total time: 111 minutes even
Total distance: 14 miles
Average pace: 7:55

My gripe with the TM is that I ALWAYS run my warm up/down faster than I should. I mean outside I would have been warming up roughly a minute slower than inside.  I think my warm down pace is typically around an 8:30 pace or so, just because after running so fast for so long this feels creeping.  But the warm-up today was wicked fast.  Not that it felt uncomfortable at all but it’s just weird that I can run the same effort but a faster pace on the tm.  I’ve been told that it’s usually the other way around for most people and running outside is faster.

But the faster warm up coupled with a FAST tempo made the overall pace drop which is going to be huge when I calculate the weekly pace.  And I can’t say that upsets me. 😛

But the run itself was great.  I threw a towel over the console so I wouldn’t be caught counting down the time until it was over.  I did peak around minute 17 which was about 2.5 miles in or so and then decided not to look again.  Heh.  I made it to 4.6 or so but by then I knew I was more than halfway there and it was all good.

Like usual the first mile or so SUCKED.  It’s just so hard to go from easy to really pushing and, while my body isn’t exactly rebelling, my mind sure is.  But since I was on the TM there was no way in hell I was adjusting my pace.Even though there was maybe 2 other people there with me. Haha.

As a note on the pace: I chose to run today VERY aggressively (and if sweat is any indication then it was VERY times ∞. And no, no pictures.  I thought about it butttttt no. Haha. I figured that I didn’t want to ruin the image you guys have of me because today was much sweatier than Tuesday.  Like I was drenched a mile into the tempo.  I should have brought a change of clothes to the gym heh)  Partly because the past two tempos have been under-performed.  But mostly because I wanted to prove to myself that this was something I was capable of.  The first 6 miles were just off of 10k pace and the last mile was under my 10k pace.  I think this says to me that I have some speed and need to settle a score with the 10k.  I do have a tentative one set up over my spring break but we’ll see if it’s feasible for me to travel there.

But despite the pushed pace I never felt like it was too much.  I’m not sure if I could have gone faster (or at least changed the ratio of 7:19 to 7:08) or longer (well maybe a half mile or so but not much beyond that).  Total signs that I did this tempo correctly.  I wasn’t being bull-headed by going out so strong.  Always a good thing and with me I never know if that’s the case: am I being stupid and trying to just show off or am I running smart.  Looks like today was a smart one.

And being the smart cookie I am, I acted immediately on calling the Sports Med Dept at Children’s Hospital this morning (even though it’s a children’s hospital about half the patients in the sports med dept are adults because all the doctors are have other specialties and are board certified for adults and children).  Just to reiterate because I think this is getting lost with some people: my ankle/shin is NOT AN INJURY.  I’m doing this solely precautionary.  Which is why I’m waiting until my spring break (2 weeks eeeek!) rather than getting in earlier.  That and I can’t take a day off of school unless my foot is actually falling off.  That said, I’m glad that all of you guys think it’s a good choice to see someone.

Speaking of it though, this morning I woke up with very little stiffness/achey-ness.  I suppose some of the credit should be that I started an NSAID routine yesterday and that helped the healing process of my body.  I’m sure that my stretching and alphabets have helped too.  The only thing that hurt when I got up was my calf: it felt like I had gotten a charlie horse overnight! I’m positive I didn’t because I totally would have woken up but it felt amazing to stretch out today.  And as I type this up it feels back to normal.

Oh and another thing that I loved about moving my run to the TM was that I got to put on the History Channel while running.  I normally don’t like putting on the TV while running. For one thing the screen is *way* too close to me and another is that I don’t feel like a “real runner”.  Silly? Yes. But hey, I am a minimalist at heart.  Either way I got to watch a really cool special on the pyramids of Giza.  It was SO . COOL.  Part of me thinks that I should have taken more (read: ANY) history classes while here at school buttttt I don’t think I would have liked being “forced” to learn it.  I like doing it this way 🙂

Another way to success 🙂

And to keep a semi-theme of success I need to hit up the physics and Spanish work so that I can pass my classes? Yes that would be a good thing.  Plus if I get done at a reasonable hour I can drink tonight.  And there’s nothing like drinking and dancing to get a chica motivated to do her work.  Success? I’m getting there 🙂