I had mapped out a possible lunchtime run that I figured would take a little over an hour at an easy pace. I want to start getting outside more and doing less of my work week running on the treadmill. I've got my first Long-Slow-Distance (LSD) run of the marathon training mileage buildup planned for tomorrow morning, so today was supposed to be an easy-to-marathon pace run of 60-70 minutes, mostly for weekly mileage and keeping loose.
Typical me: I ran too hard and too quickly and wound up covering the 7.5 miles in under an hour. On the one hand, I'm thrilled by that. That's pretty speedy: about a good 48-minute 10K pace for me. But on the other hand, it's a lack of awareness and pace control because this wasn't supposed to be a 10K race pace run, or even a tempo run. I should have done this at least a minute slower per mile. That was the plan anyway. On the treadmill, I can govern my pace more readily. But I simply have to teach myself how to do it when it's not the road that's passing under my feet and without a constant monitor in front of my eyes. I have to be able to feel it, recognize it and respond to it.
I did have a sense that I was pushing too hard from my heart rate. It was elevated about 5-10% of max than I knew it should be, and I'd throttle back. But then worry about getting too slow or plodding would take over and my natural gait would kick back in without me realizing it until I was huffing and puffing again, wondering why I was so spent.
Assuming the rain holds off, I'm planning a 15 mile long run in the morning. I really hope I didn't mess up the schedule by making today's run too hard. I can already tell I'm going to be feeling a little stiffness and soreness. I might have to push the LSD run to Sunday morning. (It's a one-way run to Lake Miramar. I have a ride home arranged for Saturday, but not Sunday.)
