Another crumby Monday

I was supposed to do 3 miles at my new T pace (6:51 min/mile) + a set of 4 200m intervals at R pace (5:45 min/mile).  It didn’t got that way at all.  I got about a half mile at my T pace, then called it off and just did a 3 mile easy run.  My legs were like stone.  I figured having yesterday off would help, but apparently it only made things worse.  Oh well.  This is kind of a short week anyway.  If things work out like last week, I’ll be happy I guess.  Although, I could do without the intestinal problems and the butt pain.

After work, I picked Alice up from school for another 3 miles.

“Daddy, can we go fast today,” she asked”.

“No”, I replied.

“Well, I want to practice for the race.”

“I think you should go slow all week.  That way you’ll save your speed for the race”  (I had my own reasons for going slow too).

So, I hit the start button on my Garmin and she took off.  She had a 15 foot gap on me before we were off the school grounds.  My calves were sore and my thighs were burning.  I had figured I had at least 2 years before this happened.  Once I got warmed up, I caught up to her and found a rhythm.  I let her decide the pace and just simply followed behind.  It was a silent run.  I made note of our mile splits, but didn’t tell her what they were.   I got comfortable at our pace and wondered how long she would hold on.  I  could tell in the last mile that she was feeling it, but she kept going.  I heard her groan in the last mile and finally let her know she was killing the pace and she may as well push for the last 800 m.  She did, and finished with a 3 mile time of 25:21 – her fastest time of the last 3 weeks.

“How am I going to run that fast in the race?” she asked

“Well, you know you can do it, because you did it today”, I replied.

“But I felt like I was going to die”.

I just laughed and told her to focus on catching her breath.  I think she’ll take it easy the rest of the week.

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