Mile repeats yesterday. I overslept in the morning but made it to the afternoon class. It’s a different vibe than the morning, but equally fun, social, competitive and all that. Gilbert said we should take the first one slow, the middle ones 20 seconds faster, and then run a couple seconds faster than last month on our last repeat. He was looking for improvement. I knew I wouldn’t be improving on the last time we did this workout. I was hungry. I was tired. My legs were dead from the 8 mile water bomb on Monday and general tiredness from the last couple of weeks. Shoot, I knew during lunch at work, when I went for a little walk, that I wouldn’t be doing well in this workout.
Anyway, I ran 6:56, 6:39, 6:33 and 6:19. 30 seconds slower than last time. I thought I saw a small frown from Gilbert after my last one. But I had nothing in the tank on any of them. I ran with Avery(?) on the first two, and that was nice, but each of the repeats was a mental struggle, especially the last two, when I basically ran alone. It’s weird, but I felt like I was running soooo sloooooow, barely moving. But since I had to overcome internal struggles I actually feel positive about the mental aspect of the workout and have no worries about the physical. My expectations have really changed over the last couple of years.
Today I went for a bike ride at lunch on the usual S. Mopac/45 loop. Legs not as tired as yesterday, but still felt sluggish. I love riding. Yesterday I mentioned to Gilbert that I might do his next Marathon training class for the 2007 Austin Marathon and during the conversation he said, “well, once you quit riding your bike….” Hmmm. That’s not the first time he’s said something like that about cross-training activities. We’ll see….
