Adjustments

Some days that extra gear is not there. Such was the case this past Saturday morning. Got up early (6:30a) to meet the Ashley HS kids at the Carolina Beach Rec Center for their voluntary practice, but unbeknownst to me it had been cancelled due to the weather.

Perhaps since we usually run mile repeats, and get a harder workout in, I decided to try and run some threshold miles on the roads from Carolina Beach down to Kure Beach and back. A brief heavy shower hit, and I almost bagged it; perhaps mother nature was trying to send me a message.  But once my running shoes are on, and the garmin watch strapped to my wrist, it takes much more than a volatile atmospheric system to get me to abort the run.

The rains subsided and I got in a solid 3 miles, cutting the pace down to about a 7:20/ mile, before I ramped up for what I had planned to be 3 more miles at threshold pace in the 6:15- 6:20/ mile range.

I didn't feel too bad, but it also wasn't clicking. The effort was a bit too strenuous for what I felt the results should be pace wise, though truth be told it was still a pretty solid workout. I got 2.5 miles in at a 6:30/ mile pace before I shut it down along the main drag on the island, Lake Park Blvd. But the humidity was much more of a bear than I had anticipated, and when the winds gusted off the ocean it made the running doubly difficult.

After a real easy half mile though, I decided to add some hard, longer sprints in. I ran for a 10th of a mile close to all out, followed by a 10th of a mile slow recovery jog, and repeated 5 times. Felt pretty good doing so physically... ran them all under 30 seconds, or sub 5:00 / mile pace. And I felt good since I had salvaged some more of the work-out. Or perhaps a better of way of stating, is that I felt a lot better mentally about the entire output of the morning's running after the elongated sprints. I even dry heaved and almost yakked after one of them.

As a runner I've learned over the years to adjust on the fly... quite literally some days. It's better to get part of a work out in, then none at all. Or to not blow up a hard run too early, instead of attempting to recalibrate.

I've also had several harder efforts the past two weeks as well, which is likely adding a bit of accumulated fatigue to my legs. Will slot in some off days and easier runs before the big Tata's 5K this coming Saturday.

I carry forth, one step at a time.