A Runner in the Making and Cheesecake

This morning’s run was of mixed results. It was a nice morning, a little foggy and mid-40’s. The dog was all about getting up and going even though I wasn’t as sure. However, the promise of a holiday lunch encouraged me to put some time in on the pavement.

I felt good this morning. I planned a fasted fast run. After a little consideration, I decided on a different route that allowed for some street running so I could go faster without worrying about sidewalk. I am accident prone and have been very lucky to have only taken two headers thus far. And no bush bathroom breaks either. Knock on wood.

The pace alerts encouraged me. My feet felt fairly floaty off the ground. Breath flowed smoothly in and out of my lungs. Runkeeper seemed to be running smoothly. IHeart was playing the favorites of my favorites list. All seemed to be running well.

Around mile 3.5, I felt a wall encroaching. The legs that felt so good after a few minutes were starting to slog. My breath felt labored. I kept moving. This was to be expected. I had been cheating with GU on other runs so I had a suspicion that this might be a hard won run.

I redoubled my efforts to keep up a good clip. Pace alerts from Runkeeper seemed to indicate I was slowing down. But my average pace kept sinking and that was all that mattered.

Around mile 5, I think I seriously considered walking. I have not walked on a run for over a month other than warm ups and cool downs. This morning would not break this streak. I refused and pushed on up the hills and thru the straightaways.

The last mile was pure stubbornness and detachment from my body. But my pace alerts still was putting me at 11:30min/mi.

Now, once again, the app froze when I tried to save my activity, so I lost about 20 seconds off my average pace for the run. That seems to be normal now but what got me was my average mile times. They were not great and certainly not speedy.

What can I take away from this? It is either a bad run, shows how much GU helps my performance, or both. Or something completely unrelated.

While the results are not what I hoped for, it was still a good run for me. It felt good. Other than the feeling of impending walls and the wall itself, it felt good. It felt comfortable. The first minutes of it sucked, but most people I know say the first mile or so are rough.

This is a non-time victory. I truly enjoyed my run this morning. I guess I’m really turning into a runner.

Oh and the holiday work party was fantastic. Even more so because I could eat lunch and freely and without reserve enjoy the cheesecake and garlic bread.