Training Run 4-8-08

Today's 4 miles were a mixed bag.

Pros: new shoes, running in daylight, spring weather.
Cons: not enough water, forgot my vitamins, spring weather.

Overall, the cons slightly outweighed the pros, as the spring weather was almost too warm (over 70) and extremely humid. I had a breeze in my face both out and back, but it was just enough to make me feel like I was swimming upstream yet not enough to cool me down.

I ended up taking more walking breaks than I have in a long time...partly due to lack of mental focus, I think. Result was the slowest 4-mile time I've run in a while...48:44. However, I guess that a 12:11 mile is still only slightly off my hoped-for "race pace" of 11:00, and I do remember that I get a significant adrenaline boost during the actual race experience.

I guess it's still good that I was actually able to get out and run 4 miles two days after running 10 miles...probably means there was still more in the tank last Sunday, so I can have confidence I WILL finish on Saturday.

Still, I'm starting to feel jittery...what if Saturday is like today, only 3 times? Could be a long morning.

And yet, when I multiply 48.75 by 3, and then add another 12, that only gets me to about a 2:40 time for the race. Not horrible.

I also know part of the reason I died in the second half of my run today was that I went out way too fast in the first mile...excited to be running in new shoes, I guess, and excited for race week and a relatively light workout...and as a result got to the 1-mile mark at about 10:40...waaaay faster than I wanted to go, and definitely too fast to maintain.

Oh well...I guess I just need to remind myself that I am a Penguin...

"I'm slow...I know...get over it." =)