Yep, you heard it. Not stellar. Not depressing. Just AVERAGE.
This morning I went out to run 7 miles easy. I had to count half of my warm-up mile because it was taking me so long to finish. It took me about 1hr 20xxx minutes to go 6.46 miles. Both legs were cramping and hurting, especally ol' righty. How is this possible when I just ran a comfortable 3mi race and a stellar PR on Sunday, and when my "easy but fast" running pace is 10-11 minute miles? My only comfort is that my pattern usually goes: early-week run sucks, mid-week run is better, end-of-week run is GREAT! So hopefully by Sunday I'll be warmed up and have my crappy run out of the way, and it will be smooth(er) sailing from there.
And that really illuminates two of my weaknesss: mindset and planning my own training. Planning my own training will have come over the years. There's a lot to think about - BTs and weight workouts and thresholds and crashing and peaking and building and intensity and volume and the list goes on and on. So, for right now, I'll just follow someone else's plan (someone more experienced) with a few tweaks of my own.
But mindset is something I could work on immediately. For example, my lack of consistency could be corrected. Constantly going from great workouts to horrible without much consistency is a key indicator that I lack some mental component, probably confidence or focus. Let's face it, I can use both of those in my every day life, not just my tri-life.
2 tidbits of wizdom:
Have you seen the McMillan running calculator before? If not, google it. I love it. Big time. It uses your most reliable pace at a certain distance (e.g., I use my 5k time because it's so darn consistant) and converts it to your different goal run times.
So, for example, with a 5K of 31:30, your easy runs should be in the neighborhood of 12:15 - 12:45.
Good luck this weekend!
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