Often our minds limit us more than our bodies

I couldn't wait for my weekly review post to write about today's workout, because I was so very excited about it -- so excited that I'm writing this on my lunch break at work, and I want to tell the world whether the world cares or not (and I realize that, really, the world does not and I am mainly writing this for myself, but I am also okay with that!)! I ran an 8 mile tempo (with 2 miles warm-up and 2 miles cool-down).  It was actually scheduled for tomorrow, but I ran it a day early because the morning low today was 47 degrees as compared to 20 degrees tomorrow.  I knew that I would run better at 47, plus based on past average temperatures/common sense/the current 15-day forecast, it is going to be much closer to 47 than 20 for my half marathon in Arizona on January 15 as well as for my marathon there on February 25.  I also figured that doing it a day early would give me one extra day of recovery between it and my half marathon, which I thought would be helpful since I planned to hammer this one.  Update:  the wind chill was 4 degrees on Wednesday morning, making running this a day early a very smart life choice.

I worried about this workout, mainly because I put a lot of stock in it in regards to determining if I would be capable of a PR attempt at the Arizona Rock n Roll half, but also because I had a not-so-great workout last week.  I'd had solid 4 and 6 mile tempos building up to this, but my mile repeats last week were a hit to my confidence.  It wasn't only that I didn't run them as fast as I wanted to; it was also that I never felt strong during the workout.  The whole thing messed with my confidence and I wondered if I wasn't on track to try for a PR half after all.  I wrestled with this workout mentally yesterday, and as I went to bed I left it at, "If it goes well, it's going to be a confidence-boost, but if it goes poorly I'm not going to let it throw me because I've had other solid workouts...it's just one workout."  I also told Jon that I was going to try to go sub-6:00 on my final mile, since I'd been able to close with 5:54 and 5:55 final miles on my 4 and 6 mile tempos, and I could tell he didn't think I could do that on an 8 mile tempo, so proving him wrong also became a big goal for the workout.  Proving him wrong has fueled many of my best workouts and races over the past couple of years, so I guess I should be thankful for his pessimism, haha!

My goal was 8 miles at 6:15 pace, and I knew if I could do that and finish feeling strong (meaning that sub-6:00 final mile that I was obsessed with) I would feel good about going for 6:15 pace and a 1:21:5X at the half.  However, my best 8 mile tempo to date was during my last marathon build-up at 6:24 pace (although I ran a faster 8 miles during the White River Half and probably during the Waddell & Reed Half, but those were races).  I told myself that surely, since I'd done 6 at 6:09, I could do 8 at 6:15.  Surely.  But that disappointing mile repeat workout was taunting me and telling me that somehow I'd lost all of that fitness and that I could not do it or even come close!

I ran a warm-up with Missy and Danielle, effectively removing all worry at that point with some social time, and then Danielle started the tempo miles with me, planning to run 3-4 miles with me.  I'd planned to start off at 6:20 pace and then try to drop pace throughout, but I think having someone with me for once pushed me to start a little faster and I came through the first mile in 6:12.  That felt good and I felt like I was holding back, which was promising because I didn't feel that way early on in my last tempo, but I was also a little worried I was sabotaging my chances to finish with a sub-6:00 mile by starting a little faster than I'd started my 6 mile tempo.  I told myself to just stay between 6:12-6:15 and I would be fine.  On a tempo this long, there is always a slight fear of fizzling out early though!

Danielle ran through about 1.5 miles with me and then told me she was going to drop back with Missy, who was running 6:30-6:40 pace for her tempo.  It was nice to have company for awhile, and even running alone from there forward it was nice knowing that they were out there with me (we were all running a loop course that is not quite a mile long).  By coincidence, mile 2 was 6:11, so then I decided I would try to drop 1 second per mile.  I like having little goals like that during longer tempos, as it breaks up the distance and gives me something to focus on each mile.  I did exactly that for the next two miles, with mile 3 in 6:10 and mile 4 in 6:09 (this was a little bit by trying and mostly by luck).

After I finished mile 4, I told myself "this is like mile 9 of the half marathon", and pretending I was in a half race with that much distance left made my pace drop a bit.  Mile 5 was 6:02, and then I worried that my perfect negative split was out the window since I doubted I could drop too much time from that - but I did feel like I could maintain that for 3 more miles, so that became my goal.  I was close, with 6:04 and 6:02 for the next two miles.  All the while I was counting down the distance as if I was racing a half..."okay, 2 miles left, this is like mile 11", etc.  Running tempos like that really helps me tune into my effort and also helps me get a good feel about how much I have left to give.  The loop I ran also helps me run more effort-based (i.e., not look at my watch all of the time), because it has a "slow side" and "fast side", and I always lose time on the former and gain time on the latter.

As I passed mile 7, I pretended like I needed a sub-6:00 final mile to meet my half goal time (Lord knows my math skills won't be good enough during the actual race to accurately figure that out! - at White River I kept adding on 1:00 for the final 0.1, which is 10:00 pace).  I pushed and I did it with a 5:55!  That push left me feeling pretty spent at the end, but I think if I'd have kept miles 5-8 all 6:05ish I could have definitely maintained 6:05ish through 10 miles at least.  And I wasn't hammered for my cool-down like I was after my mile repeats; I finished it at my usual relaxed pace (7:33).  I ran this on the exact same course that I ran my mile repeats on last week, and also woke up at 4:45 a.m. for it, showing me that mile repeat workout was just an off day (it was less windy today, which surely helped as well).

I surprised myself with this one!  I was hoping to hit about 6:12 for my average pace if I had a good day - basically 6 miles at 6:15 and then the final 2 faster - and I would never have believed that I could run this at 6:06 pace.  I was really intimidated by 6:15 pace, so I'm sure glad this pace wasn't given to me as a goal!

I also ran a Garmin 10K PR during this run!  It doesn't count for anything besides a Garmin best, but it still made me happy.  I am hoping to run a 10,000 meter race on the track this spring, and I will definitely be trying for this time or faster when that day comes.

I'm a little up in the air on what to try for in Phoenix, but I figure I can never go wrong with starting conservatively, so I think starting at 6:15ish pace will still be my goal and then I'll see what happens from there.  If I maintain 6:15 pace across the board, I'll have a time starting with a 1:21 and a PR, and if I can speed up a little more throughout as I have on my tempos then I'll have a better PR!  I'm hoping that even if I have a bad race I can run my second best half ever (my current PR is 1:22:37 and my second best time is 1:24:33).  The weather factor is slightly terrifying, as it will for sure be warmer than what I've been training in, so that may crush my PR hopes...but I have more spring halves planned if that is the case!  I'm trying to remember that it's only one day and only one race; just like this was only one workout and the mile repeats were also only one workout.  There will be more if I'm disappointed; there will be more with bigger goals if I run strong.  All I know for sure is that I will give 100% of what I have that one day, as I did today!

Onward and upward (or should that be downward, as in faster times?!)!

Splits

Wahoo!