My first leg at Ragnar was rough - a tough elevation climb, but it left me doubting what kind of shape I was in, because surely, I'd run hills before?! That's nothing new, so why did they beat me up so badly? It left me feeling a little down, as I'd hoped to knock out three stellar legs and maintain at least marathon pace on all three legs. The first leg averaged a 10:01 pace, leg 2 at 10:35 (only because all those dang stoplights!), and leg 3 finally kicked tail at a 9:49 pace.
The last mile of leg 3, I was feeling it. I had rocked pretty good that leg, and going into the last 1.25 miles, had five kills (all men) to help kickstart my final push into the exchange. When the going got tough, the first thing in my head was, "Okay... this is mile 22 of the marathon. You got this now, it's time to push, get past the hurt and uncomfortable... and make this happen!" Bam. Done and done. More on Ragnar Del Sol soon.
Tonight, I was scheduled for 40 minutes at an aerobic threshold pace. It was the last thing I wanted to do after an exhausting day with third graders, and really, I put it off as long as possible.
10 minutes of an easy warm up, 35 minutes at an AT pace, and then (too short of) a cool down, but that's okay. Those 4 miles during my 35 minutes are probably, in combination, my fastest 4 miles ever, all at an 8:13-8:29 pace, and even with the cool down and warm up, these 5.5 are probably my fastest ever (too bad the last Ragnar leg didn't turn out the same!).
Killer. And then it's runs like these that make me feel like I can do it all over again! Bring it on, LA Marathon!
Congrats to Jillian for winning the Spartan giveaway! Jillian, I'll be emailing you information and your registration code for the newest race on your calendar this year!
Didn't win? Have no fear - you can still get 10% off with the code SPARTANBLOGGER. This is good for any race in the US, any distance!
When did you hit the point where you feel like you COULD tackle that distance, whatever it may be?
No comments:
Post a Comment