Long slowie. Got caught out a bit today. I didn't pay the distance the respect it deserved and it hurt a bit. In contrast to last Sunday's sublime dawn beach run, today's was painful and difficult, though not without a good result.
I'd had another difficult night of little sleep, but not having to be up early for any particular reason was at least able to stay in bed until nearly 9 o'clock, so felt reasonably rested. The prospect of the half marathon distance I had scheduled for this morning barely registered any concern - in fact I felt ridiculously confident, which is really saying something. You really know you've made some progress when your biggest concern about running 21.1km is making sure you have enough fuel in the car to get you to the beach and back...!
So after a bit of breakfast and getting myself ready I finally hit the beach close to 11 on a beautiful sunny Sunday. The time and the weather of course meant the beach was relatively crowded and I spent the first 5km on constant dog watch, as the beach seemed full of 'em. However they weren't really an issue. The main problem was that I just hadn't mentally prepared myself properly, and I went out too fast and totally failed to find any rhythm for the first 9 - 10km.
The turn around half-way point came up in 61 minutes, and I knew then that I'd gone out too fast and was now struggling. I had been foolishly thinking I might be able to crack two hours for the half, but that seemed now unlikely. 61 minutes at the halfway mark was good, but I was shagged and knew I couldn't maintain that pace.
I kept going, but the Garmin GPS confirmed what I already knew - my pace had slowed from 5:45/km on the outward leg to 6:15/km on the homeward stretch.
I did make it to the finish in a PB time, and without stopping, but it physically and mentally hurt and really dented my confidence, despite knocking 6 minutes off my half marathon race time - the mind doesn't always work logically in this game.
However, after getting home and luxuriating in a hot shower, fresh clothes and some toast and honey and half a plunger of very fine coffee, I felt much better. And now, several hours later, I'm pretty much stoked.
So that's five weeks done. Eleven more to go, so although it's really only just begun, it's a bloomin' good start. I'm running further, faster and with barely a twinge (except for today) from the aging bod... I just need to prepare myself better for these long runs so I don't have the wobbles like today.
So, time now to change up a gear...
[gulp]
21.1km 2h7m17s
TdJ:
Alice Cooper's Poison.
Week 5 total: 30 kilometres.
Adelaide Marathon Campaign - Week 5 of 16.
