My best friend was in town this weekend - she is more like a sister to me than a friend. And rather than get up at the crack of dawn to squeeze in my scheduled weekend runs, I took both days off. I'd rather just enjoy the precious time I have with her than forcing a few extra miles in. So, 25 miles for last week instead of 45 - this was much more fun. We had a wonderful time catching up - she got to meet my fiance finally and just hang out. I had a huge smile on my face picking her up at the airport, and that feeling stayed all weekend.
And ultimately, in terms of running this spring, good enough is the goal. I am only planning on doing 3 races this spring: a 5k, 5 mile, and 10k. I am not anticipating any PRs - it is just the goal to be fairly consistent and run some decent races. Faster times will come this fall. The schedule anticipates that not every run or workout will happen - with no shame or guilt. With our wedding, and so much other stuff (another friend is getting married in Oklahoma in March - road trip!) going on - why make there be too much pressure.
Today was a 20-20-20-20 minute workout: 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes moderate, 20 minutes harder, 20 minutes easy. I did it on the treadmill because it's only 10 degrees, and the trail that I tend to do speed workouts on is totally covered in snow and ice. When I picked up the speed on the treadmill after the first 20 minutes, going about 7:10 pace, it just felt fast and took a while to settle in. I finally adjusted, and it felt like a lot of work to pick it up again to 6:55 at the 20 minute mark. Ultimately, the paces I ran were slower than my 10 mile pace, but better than stopping (which was what I wanted to do at 3 miles) or just doing an easy pace. I ended up with 10.5 miles done - a good enough workout.
I'm not saying we shouldn't always go for the gold, but perfection, knocking it out of the park can't always happen, nor should we expect it to. I still want to do better, but I also want to have fun.
Runs are good, as is getting faster, but you can't beat this.
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| Me and my best friend Kathleen - my maid of honor |
That's when a good enough week makes it worth it for a best enough weekend.
<3 this.
ReplyDeleteHi Medievalist! Just stumbled on your blog the other day - I too am balancing an avid love of racing with graduate life in the humanities - grew up in DC and now at school farther north, but will be returning to run the cherry blossom this spring! i want to break into the 1:05 territory but am at quite a loss when it comes to planning howww exactly to go about that goal! weekly mileage build-up, when to do what kinds of tempo and at what pace, the whole kit and kaboodle....anyways, would love to glean some nitty gritty training schedule info from you, if you would like to share the secrets of the trade - since i hope to literally follow in your footsteps this coming april 6... can leave my email if you'd like!
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