Day 87 - Dad Knows Best

Today's scheduled run: 5 miles

Today's completed run: 5 miles
Pace: 8:27 avg

Today was perhaps the most yucktastic of my training days thus far. That's pretty good, considering I've been training all winter. I suppose the weekend it snowed was the worst, but I'd already gotten my long run in, so I didn't have to do anything in it. Today I had five miles to complete and was ready to hit the treadmill. Ready, I said; not excited. As I was preparing to head out, I heard my dad's voice in my head: "You have to train in anything, because you never know what it will be doing on race day." (Or something like that.)

I groaned, audibly, even though I was alone, and traded my shorts for my fleece-lined running tights and a waterproof jacket. Weatherwise, I had wintry mix, snow, and plain old rain. The wintry mix/snow portion lasted about a mile, while the steady rain lasted for the remaining four. Ick. I don't like the cold, and I don't like being wet while cold. Does anyone?

Still, I was so glad I ran outside! I also decided not to obsess about pace and let my body decide what it could and couldn't do. I've been watching my Garmin like a hawk these last few runs, which can stress me out. It was really nice to just run for the first four miles (8:51/8:28/8:31/8:45). Hey - I never said I was a consistent pacer; that's typically what I use the Garmin for. As with several of my recent runs, I pushed hard to run the last mile at a sub-8:00. I achieved that goal with a 7:47, which explains the 8:27 average pace for the whole run.

I like ending with a fast mile; it's like I leave everything on the road. Whatever happened in the miles leading up to that last one doesn't matter, because I'm going to run my heart out for the last one and end strong. There's something to be said for ending strong. There's also something to be said for the fact that this post is starting to sound like the commercial designed by Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt's characters in What Women Want. With that in mind, I'll stop while I'm behind. :)