Stuck

Week in review:
79 miles
2 hard workouts: 200m track workout, 2×3 miles at tempo
One off day

Last week I had a little bit of a breakthrough (i.e. not being INCREDIBLY slow, just sort-of slow), and I was excited to continue with that progress this week. Except it didn’t happen. Both workouts I had I was pretty much exactly the same speed as last week. A little frustrating, especially since I really WANT to be faster!!

First workout: 8×200 faster, 200 fast. Faster is supposed to be 35, fast supposed to be 55. Every single time I came through the fast 200, I saw 38.x. Seriously? I’d reset my mind during the “recovery” 200, vowing to make the next 200m repeat faster. I thought about my form, arm swing, etc. I also visualized perfect, powerful form when running (in hopes that it might translate). But no matter what I did, I came through in 38’s.

Total time for the 2 miles was 12:36.

As I told Jerry, that seems so… pedestrian. I’ll be trying to race a 5k in 41s or so this spring. And I can only muster 38s? 41s don’t seem like they’d be possible…

But, I guess it doesn’t really matter – I ran as fast as my legs would carry me & truly tried to get every second out of them. Guess that’s all you can ask for. I just WISH I could be faster! It’s frustrating to realize that you have no ability to bring it down. I realize it’ll be a while until I can get that ability back (if I ever had such an ability), since I haven’t worked on it in over a year and a half…

On to workout #2: 2×3 miles at tempo (goal sub 6)
Result: 6:05 average, 6:08 average. The first repeat I let myself lose it the last mile. I allowed myself to hurt. Not acceptable. I reset myself for the second rep, reminding myself to embrace the pain, trying to endure as much “uncomfortableness” as possible. I only have two opportunities each week to really test myself (and considering the 200s aren’t really that taxing on the legs or lungs (because I can’t move myself fast enough to get there!), it’s really just this workout – so I have to make it count. I was mentally stronger on this one, but just couldn’t squeak out any additional seconds. At least the second tempo segment was 2 secs/mile faster than last week (but just 2 secs? really?)

So — a somewhat frustrating week in terms of progress, but I also understand that it’s a process and that improvements sometimes come slower than you’d like. I’m reminding myself to be patient, that I’ll get back up to speed soon enough — in the meantime, all I can ask is that I give my best in the workouts I’m given.

And smile, because I’m still having a lot of fun chasing dreams 🙂

PS – I’ve polled facebook, but I’ll try here as well. I cracked the glass on my garmin, so it’s only a matter of time before water sneaks into the display & it dies. Because I’ve become SO dependent on knowing distances/paces, I know I need to seek out a new one fairly soon. Any recommendations? I’m considering the 110 (garmin) – I just want something simple & small. I haven’t done much research on Nike’s option or the Soleus option. Any advice?