Jon-isms

I am blessed with a husband who is super supportive of my running, and who even understands it to some degree, having run 3 marathons and countless shorter races himself.  He comes to all of my races, no matter how early, cold, etc., and is my biggest fan. He is also more of a realist (pessimist!) instead of an optimist about his running as well as about my running, and it's become a running joke for me to tell some of my friends his seemingly pessimistic comments about my runs.  I know he has the best intentions, but at this point it's become so funny that I wanted to document it. 

One of the many MANY races he has spectated

Before I ran my half PR at Waddell and Reed, he said, "That is a horrible course for a good time; you shouldn't even waste your time on this one."  After the race he said "1:24 is so fast.  You may never be able to beat that time."  I mentioned my supportive yet somewhat doubtful spouse in a post about that race here.  So much for working to improve that PR in Jon's book!

The Sunday following an unfortunate Saturday 5K, I ran my final mile of my 18 mile run in 6:49 while keeping it easy, finishing a strong run.  Jon said, "It's kind of sad that you can easily finish 18 with a 6:49 but couldn't run a 5K at 6:05 yesterday." (more details of the runs here).  I can't argue with him too much here, because it was pretty sad, and is now even more sad because I recently finished a 24 miler with a 6:36 mile (whereas my 5K bonk final mile was 6:31!), but some days you just don't have it!

I made a comment that my easy pace was getting faster, so I thought that meant I was getting fitter.  Jon says, "That's just the difference between 68 degrees and 80 degrees in the mornings."  Fail!

After "the hardest workout ever," he said, "That's amazing sug.  You should print those splits out and frame them because you may never do that again."  Clearly I'm getting past my prime!

After my 10K PR, he said, "You are in incredible shape, that was great.  I hope this doesn't mean you're peaking too early.  I hope you can hold that for your marathons."  Da da dum!

I had a great track workout on tired legs this week, hitting or beating all of my challenging splits except for a 200 m at the end.  Jon says, "That's why you can't run a PR 5K."  Again, this one is probably true, but also I'm not sure if anyone runs great 200 m repeats off of marathon training!  

Following this 10 mile tempo + 1 mile throw down, he said that I seemed ready for 15K and half PRs. Then he followed up with, "if you can actually stay healthy. I think you're closer to injured than healthy after this week." I definitely disagreed with him on this point, because although I had a hard week, my coach did very well building me up to it. But in Jon's world, I am broken!

Similar to the previous one, I mentioned that I needed to register for my 15K race on September 18, as I hadn't registered early because there was no price difference until late registration at packet pick-up and on race morning.  He says, "Can you wait until after your 24 miler on Wednesday to make sure you're still in one piece?"

After that final comment, I cut him off on this train of thought!  I'm more of the cautiously optimistic track myself, although I'm not hugely optimistic about my upcoming 15K race since I almost ran a marathon on Wednesday and my legs are feeling it, but I'm going to give it my all!