Last Wed, I was feeling pretty good about my chance of reaching my goal of 1:50 for the mini next month. To do that, I have to run, 8:24 pace. On Friday, I decided to do a temp run at 8:15-8:20, well, as usual, I started out to fast, like a 7:55, I was dying, I could not finish the 4 miler. I had to stop once and then I still only finished in like a 8:40 pace. I chalked it up to that was my 3rd fast run in a week and the wind was bad again.
However...
On Saturday, I did a 10 miler, I was planning on a slow one, like 10:00 - 10:30 and after 6 miles I was dying, I thought about heading home, but I decided I could not stop. about 8 miles into it, my legs started to tingle, not something I remember happening before. I kept going, but I felt bad. Don't know what my final pace was, my Garmin got sweat or water under the crystal and it died on me. I was probably over dressed, since I drank a ton of water and was drenched when I got home, but...
Now, I am really in doubt, I thought I was doing a lot better this year, but now I am not so sure. I want to break at least 1:55, but more so, I would like to break on 1:50. I have 3 weeks of training to go - what in the world.
Garmin Crisis:
I will be calling Garmin this afternoon, I need to see if I can get the thing fixed, how long it will take etc. I depend on it so much for training, I don't know what I will do without it. I guess I will just figure it out.
I really want it race day to help me keep my speed down. I can set speed alarms to help me keep from starting out to fast and get feedback pretty quick instead of waiting until the first mile marker.
OH well!! Sorry to be worried about that, it is such a little thing in the scope of life and problems, but I hate the idea of 14 weeks of training not getting me a better result!
Take Care and Please forgive my Rant!!!
Comments (3)
It's natural to have our doubts. But I think when race day gets here.....you will do it!!!! Sounds like you need to work on going out slower and picking it up later on.....you'd be amazed with the amount of energy you will have when you start out slow :)
Keep pressing on, like you say! Remember that you've still got time for training and thus your body will adapt further. Keep doing your tempo runs, and I HIGHLY recommend doing intervals. I think it's mentally easier to go fast slow fast slow (time flies that way) and also you feel great because you got your legs really moving. That and hill training are one of the best ways to improve speed (with tempo runs as a supplement), though intervals will be safer and you're less likely to injure hamstrings and such.
You might do a 10K and race with yourself a couple weeks before race day. Run it as hard as you can and REALLY push. Ideally it would be best to find an actual race to run in. Extrapolate your 10K time to see where you're at to give you a good estimate for the half-marathon on one of those race time predictors (if you want a link I'm sure I can find another one). 5 minutes is a lot to shave off of a half-marathon time so it's a good idea to see where you stand so that you don't overshoot, burn out, and not finish as strong as you could have had you taken the pace a little more easily.
Oh, one more thing:
Garmin world headquarters are in KC!
But honestly, depending on how much time they'll take, I'd be willing and happy to let you borrow mine (I'd ship it to ya and everything). Even when I run outdoors I don't use it right now since I'm not training. I have the 301 (was yours the 305?) with the HR monitor. It's a little bigger than the 305 but works about the same. Just email me and let me know if you need it!