I know in my head that a day off from running is prescribed once or even twice a week to allow for recovery and repair. And I was quite tired yesterday after the hard run on Sunday, so a rest day made sense.
Why is it, then, that I'm always anxious about running again after a day off? I know, rationally, that's it wrong to think this way, but I feel like taking a day off is giving back some of my conditioning and will result in lagging performance. In fact, the opposite is supposed to be true, and oftentimes it's proven to be true. Some of my best outings are on the day after a no-run day.
Today? I was nervous. I was only planning on doing a base-pace training run of about an hour, which for me is around an 8:30-8:45 per mile pace or even slower. It ought to be comfortably aerobic but not a cake walk. I just want to get started on my weekly mileage with about 7 relatively easy ones.
For some odd reason, I felt the need to press it a little more. What I think happened was that I got it into my head that I shouldn't throttle back and run at a pace slower than my half marathon average pace from over a week ago (8:15) and so I "ego'ed" myself into running more quickly, and then blaming the level of perceived difficulty on the fact that I'd taken a day off.
How, for instance, could I comfortably run an 8:15 pace for 13.1 miles, but then only 9 days later, require a little strain to run at that pace for a mere 7 miles? I admit that I don't really have a solid answer, though I know that not running on Monday isn't the reason. I didn't run on Saturday before the half marathon either, and yet ran a strong race.
No. That's not it. There are all sorts of different factors. For one, it's later in the day and I'm a little more fatigued than I was that Saturday morning. For another, I probably watered myself more diligently before and during the race than I did today. And I admit, the atmosphere and adrenaline of the race gave me a boost. It's nigh near impossible to duplicate that on the treadmill.
As an aside, I'm always impressed when I read about others who head out for their daily run even if the weather is nasty. Today, the San Diego north county coastal weather was a bit chilly, windy and overcast. Philly or Chicago runners probably would have welcomed the "balmy" weather. Me? I was too much of a wimp to run one of my outdoor routes, choosing the comfortable, temperature-controlled gym with it's treadmill. How lame is that?
Anyway, I got the workout in and made it a little harder than it had to be. Wednesday's are going to be my standard speedplay day, and I intend to do a set (8x or 10x) of Yasso 800s. In the past, I've sped up the workout by not allowing for a full recovery during the intervals, but tomorrow I want to do them right. Planning to get through at least 8 at a 7:00 per mile pace. According to Bart Yasso, that's a target pace for a 3:30:00 marathon trainer; probably too fast for me...but there's that ego again. I know it. I acknowledge it. And yet I do it anyway.
