Thursday, January 17, 2008

Thursday 15 miles. Melt down of sorts..

am) 11 miles. Treadmill (it was 5 degrees this morning).. 6 mile warm-up.
Then: 4 X 1 mile in 5:30 on 400 in 1:30. Average HR 161. Max HR 166. HR on the 400 recoveries would fall to ~150. I had planned on running more but to be honest- I just got bored.

pm) I marked a "red flag" on todays training journal entry. I was unable to complete (or start!) today's second run. I think I may have been able to, but the risk VS benefit at this point is not worth it. Don't get me wrong.. risk is the only way to achieve a goal that is truly going to challenge you and I have always been addicted to risk, but by missing 8 miles of hard running today I believe I tipped back across the fine line I am running on right now. I started my run this evening and knew from step one that I may be in trouble. Not having a coach or any guidance to speak of, my wife and her oft spoken advice to me rang in my head.. "what would you tell your athlete to do?". So I jogged back to my car and drove home.

2 comments:

GZ said...

TL - you have been pushing the envelope a lot. It is inspiring. You do big miles, with hard miles in there A LOT. You have a gift and you are utilizing it. That is great.

It is also good to see you listen to your body, versus become a slave to some mile number you want to put in your log, or do a workout because you had planned to.

In four years, will you remember not running hard for the second time today? No. Would you remember it if you had gotten hurt or killed your plans for Austin? Yes.

Good choice. You can call it a meltdown. I call it smart ... but only in light of everything else you have been doing.

And it is freaking cold anyway.

kerrie said...

not that i should talk cause i really can't seem to keep myself from getting sick these days but it is probably good you took a rest...however, i think b/c you are quite fit, much of your fatigue is delayed sooooo, i think you need to avoid days like yesterday by resting on predetermined days no matter how good you feel on that day(a hard 5 k is tough on your body). i am guilty too of going hard on days just cause it feels good when i really should be resting(like the day you came home and did dishes then went out again - that probably should have been your rest day - if you have that much energy, come do mine too ;) )
or try some 'cross-training' to give your legs a break...CdR, who just ran 1:14:xx in houston(baby is 8 months if you can believe it) does a lot of eliptical...sometimes it takes more discipline to hold back instead of going out and hammering!