Tuesday - 15km

I must confess that I’ve been getting carried away with times and paces over the past two or three weeks. What went from running ‘comfortably hard’ and enjoying it became a race to beat yesterday’s time. And I got away with it mostly, but yesterday it finally caught up with me. I got up, ready to run, but felt terrible - pretty much how I was feeling in my final days of speedwork. With much regret, I went back to bed - feeling terrible and kicking myself for the entire day. But in all honesty, it was exactly what I needed. I’ve had to readjust my mindset towards why I am running in the first place - I love it, I enjoy keeping fit, and it’s something I plan to do until the day I die. Trying to run faster and faster each day is simply unsustainable. I know this, I can tell this to anyone else, but when it comes to convincing yourself, sometimes it is extremely difficult to do. So that was the plan (or challenge might be the more appropriate term) this morning. And the good news is that I managed to do it very successfully, and really enjoyed it once again. The pace was comfortable as I ran the North Head loop. Temperatures were pleasant, but this was pretty much negated with strong south-westerly winds. Nothing too out of the ordinary to report. Not that it matters at all, but I was thinking I would get home between 57-58 minutes. I was wrong, finishing in 55:45 (3:42’s). I’m really happy with that, while despite being almost two minutes slower than last Tuesday, the pace was so much easier. And to put that into perspective, it was only about a month ago when that would have been my fastest time going at a much harder intensity. So what I’ve got to do now is to simply consolidate and maintain my current aerobic base over the next few months before deciding whether I want to race again next year. And more importantly, just relax and enjoy it once again!