Weekly Sweats: If Not Now, When?

This week: 24.45 miles, some welshing and redemption on the weight lifting front, and my fastest mile ever.


I'm linking up with the Weekly Run Down, please head over to Kim and Deborah to check it out. 

Monday: The week got off to a slow start due to lack of sleep.  I couldn't bear the idea of doing weights but got my act together enough to run 4.25 miles with a few strides.

Tuesday: Normally speed day, but we had unreal rain and I knew that the trail where I do speed work would be a mud pit.  I have a "plan B" cul-de-sac for speed but I wasn't feeling it.  I set off aimlessly not sure where I was going to run or how far I was going to go.  At some point during the run it dawned on me that it was the anniversary of my first half.  So I decided to run "half of a half" for 6.55 miles.  Later that day I realized that I'd also worn the same shirt.

Wednesday: a rest day, but I did some soul searching and plotted my next moves on the running front.  My tentative plan has been to keep my mileage high while the weather was still cool and then make the switch over to speed training this summer.  Friends, it is getting to be summer and the forecast indicates that next week will be toasty.  All signs point to now being the time to make the transition from distance to mile/5k/10k.

Between you and me and anyone else who wants to know...I am scared stiff of the change.  Folks, it hurt when I did the virtual 5k and virtual 10k last month.  It hurts to do a mile test.  In the moment my focus was on the pain and not the PRs.  Sure I'm in a rut but it's a comfortable rut.

Bear with me while it sounds like I'm making a very clunky segue, but a few weeks ago I listened to the audio book of Unorthodox (y'all may be familiar with the Netflix show).  A quote that the author was inspired by and that stuck with me was "if not now, when?"  Google tells me that the full quote is:

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?

A very good question in the context of starting speed work.  Change is uncomfortable but...if not now, when?

Thursday: "Now" time.  5.15 miles total including the dreaded mile test.  The workout is:

• 15 minutes warm up
• 30 seconds fast/1 minute recover x 4
• 2 minutes fast/2 minutes recover
• 1 mile as fast as you can
• cool down

I don't know why I dread it so much, this is my third time doing it and spoiler, each time it's gone well.  I did it for the first time here (9:48) and the second time here (9:16).  I haven't done any mile-specific speed work since that last trial.  My fastest mile this year in my virtual 5k was 9:44.  My goal this summer is to hit sub 9, so those were the numbers bouncing around in my head. 

I added a #jedimindrunningtrick.  I don't just read running blogs, I take notes.  Jessie recently did a mile time trial and set it up as 1/4 mile x 4 for pacing and I copied her.  Folks, you know and I know that there is no difference between running one mile and running 1/4 mile x 4 without stopping....but I am here to tell you that mentally it is a ton easier.

I held myself back a bit in lap 1.  Lap 2 was windy and uphill (um the walking trail where I do speedwork has a net 7 feet of elevation but I am very much hung up on the "uphill" side and the "downhill" side).  Mentally it was so easy to leave the bad split behind and put my energy into the fresh start of the next quarter mile.  It also helped that I couldn't see my overall mile time until the workout was over, I could only guess, which made me very curious and very eager to finish the workout.  Make no mistake, I was sucking wind in the last quarter mile, but it just wasn't that bad, you know?

Ooh look, "if not now, when?" = Strava bling

OK, now I feel pretty confident about getting to sub 9 this summer and I'm glad that I stopped dragging my feet and got down to business.  It feels good to take chances and get results.

Friday: I felt kind of sore from the mile test so I set out for a few easy miles for no expectations.  I ended up with 4.5 miles at "fast for me" speed.  I did some more "if not now, when" soul searching and got some quality weight time over lunch.

Saturday: Long run day EXCEPT that it was very hot.  Inevitably I will be doing my long runs on the treadmill this summer, but I want to put that off for as long as possible.  For the third time this week I set out with no expectations.  After 3 miles I realized that I was at the point of diminishing returns, so I headed back home and hit an even 4 miles.  At 3.95 miles I started to get dizzy, a very familiar feeling for summer runs, so I was glad that I called it when I did.

Sunday: off!