The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile
I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks on my running progress. Even though I only ran a race in two consecutive weeks, it has felt odd not racing the last couple. It has made a big difference in my long Sunday runs, making them faster and easier to complete.
I have noticed something funny when looking at the mile splits for my long runs recently, an anomaly I call The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile. I thought at first that it was just because I was overworking myself with races the day before long runs, but it’s continued even without races. The run over the weekend was a great example. Twelve miles, averaging 9:09 overall, with the slowest mile checking in at 9:18…
Except for The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile. 10:12 for that one.
I was grumpy, I was hot, and all the fun has gone out of running. Each week, right smack in the middle, there’s a mile that is horribly off the pace. Just awful. Bad bad bad, and that ain’t good.
I’m not sure if I should be alarmed by this or not. I seem to come back strong after The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile; before it I averaged 9:09, right on pace, but after it, I averaged 8:56 and felt good. Guess I’ll just have to watch out for it in the future, and get over it.
Going racing again this weekend at the Hospice of Guernsey’s Flamingo Run in Cambridge, and then a 14-mile long run on Sunday, just for fun. Don’t forget that I’m raising money for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Tell all your friends. You can give at http://10t.co/brockcm14 or by downloading a donation form and mailing it in.
So, I’m one day removed from running the Ogden, my first half marathon, and I am surprised but pleased by how little my legs hurt. They are tired, but I feel like if I really had to run today I could, but in the interest of recovery I am going to take the day off and go for a light run tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone that helped out with the race, both officially and unofficially. The police officers that were along the course did a fantastic job keeping car traffic flowing as good as could be expected, and keeping all the runners and walkers safe, and not just from the traffic; almost every officer I passed along the way offered encouragement, asked how things were going, waved, made eye contact, or something to just check and make sure everything was OK. It was also cool to see the groups of people along the route that were not associated with the race offering free water, a spray down from their hose, encouragement, or what have you.