Run On

I slept through my alarm this morning, and finally had to give Christian “the call” –

“Hey, man”
“Hey, Bill, you almost here?”
“Uhhh, no.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Um, I don’t think I’m going to make it today.”
“Really?”
“Uh, yeah. I kind of completely slept through my alarm.”

Chris saves the day, though:

“Wow. Hey, that’s great, though. I was really kind of wanting to blow off today.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We’ll pick it up next week.”
“Ok. Great. Bye.”

Then I get to work and read Dianna’s post about running in the rain (which I blew off on Wednesday) and felt like a complete and total slug.

Luckily, I ran into no snags at the office, and was wrapping things up (at least enough to go work on them at home) this afternoon, and realized I had enough time to sneak in a pretty decent run and still make it home in time for supper with the wife and boys.

So I set the Foreruner for 45 minutes, and a 8:30 pace (based on prior results), and set out from the office. It’s a pretty flat stretch (maybe 40-50′ elevation change 3 or 4 times), so I was pretty confidient I could stay in front of the pace guy, or at least hold constant.

As I’m getting onto the larger road that runs between NUWC and the Navy Base, then turns north along the coast, I glance down and am already 100′ or so ahead of the partner. Hmm. Didn’t feel like I was pushing, but let’s slow down the RPE a little bit. Mile 1/7:28. Wow. But there’s a little bit of a downhill, so whatever. Mile 2 clocks in at 7:52 – it’s on the flat, wind at my back, but I don’t quite realize how much of a tail wind I’ve got. I decide to press on to about 21:30 remaining from the 45 minutes, and then bust tail to get back with a negative split.

OK, we’ve got a plan – run the next mile in 8:00, flat.

Turn around and – HOLY CRAP! – man, that’s a headwind. Plus, the sun picks this moment to duck behind the clouds, and the bay suddenly turns from a pleasant blue to a sickly grey. Uh-Oh.

Mile 4/8:01. Not bad. But it is starting to hurt. I seriously contemplate stopping for a walk break, but I’m making great time, IMO. Can’t give up now. If I give up now, the fat boy inside wins. Mile 5/7:57 – Wow, maybe, I can lick this thing after
all.

Uh, no. The last .65 on the way back to the office (stopped at .65 and walked the other .35 since I’d hit the 45 minutes, which was my original goal), hmm, how can I put this gently – well, it sucked great monkey balls. It was the steep, steep hill up from the shore to the back gate to the base, and I was sucking severe wind. Average pace of 8:46/mile reflects about a 10 minute pace while climbing the hill, and about an 8:30 pace while I
-tried to catch my breath at the top of the hill
-tried hard not to puke
-begged and pleaded with myself not to stop running until I hit 45 minutes.

Obviously, I survived. And I’m thrilled, in hindsight. First, it was another good, long (again, for me – I’ve still got to break double digits again) run – 5.65 miles in 45 minutes. Second, it was FAST (again, for me). It may be my first greater than 5 miler run at less than an 8 minute pace (7:58 overall, but hey – it’s still technically less than 8 minutes). Third, I successfully avoided two days widening my rump; though after the strong performance today, I may have to reconsider my 5 day/2 rest day training program. Although I’m still planning to wait until some weight comes off (and it might be – after dinner today, I peed clear [sorry, may be too personal] and still weighed in at 181).