Superstitious Behavior

The one problem with me running my longest and best run recently on the treadmill is that now I feel like if I don't run on the treadmill, I won't run as well. The rational part of my brain knows that this isn't true, but that last 4-mile run was so extraordinarily better than my previous runs that it makes me feel like if I go try to run outside for 4-miles, I might not be able to.

Anyway, this led me to my run yesterday being on the treadmill once again. I only ran twice (?) last week and am likely only getting 2 runs in this week, so I wanted to do another relatively long run. The longest recovery run option was 40 minutes, so I decided to do that. From the get-go, I decided I wanted to try to run 5-miles. I've been kind of kicking myself that I didn't just keep going during the last 3.5 turned 4-mile run because I felt so good. So, I wanted to push a little further. I listened to the "Head Starts" recovery run with Coach Bennett.

I started the treadmill at a 10:30 pace and kept that up for the first 2-miles. Even though I started increasing the pace earlier in the last run, I didn't want to be too aggressive, so I slowly adjusted the speed. From mile 2 to mile 3 I adjusted my speed every 0.20 miles. By 3.5 miles, I decided to speed it up and run at a 9:30 pace for the rest of the run. Overall, it was also a very good run. From a fitness perspective, I felt great. My breathing was good, my mind was clear, and I was just cruising. From a body perspective, I technically wasn't doing the best. My achilleas were slightly hurting, I felt some random knee pains, and at a random moment in the 3rd mile I felt a little nauseous. This is where I'm a better "teammate" to other people than to myself. When my friends tell me they have some sort of minor injury or tenderness, I tell them to take a break from running. However, when I'm in the same situation, I just continue to run. Not the best decision, but I do know my body and could tell that my lack of stretching was playing a large part in the pain.

I felt pretty good when the run ended. I did notice both of my knee's kind of locked up after for a little bit and I believe that it from how abrupt of a stop I came to at the end of the 5 miles. My overall pace was around 10:05 which I was pleased with.

However, I did make a vital mistake during this run. As I've mentioned, I don't generally like treadmills and yesterday's experience was a core example (even though I am also at fault for this). I like setting a timer on the treadmill because I enjoy seeing how much time I've ran and how much time I have left. I made the mistake though by inserting a time of 45-minutes. I did this because my run was supposed to be 40-minutes and while I was planning on running further, I didn't want to set myself up for "failure." On my last treadmill, I was able to increase the clock time during my run. It wasn't a problem at all. However, I was running on a different treadmill. When I hit 45-minutes, it automatically changed my speed to 2mph and put me in a 2-minute cool-down. Luckily, I had expected this as I noticed while running that it wasn't letting me adjust my clock. I paid attention to how far I had run before it blanked the screen out and put me on a cool-down. I quickly clicked on 6.6mph to continue running. Then, the 2-minute recovery run was over, and I still hadn't finished (which I knew was going to be the case). The treadmill started to stop and show my "completed workout." I had to quickly click to restart the treadmill and once again calculate the distance I completed in the 45-minutes plus the 2-minutes to then just finish out my run. So, this is my fault because I didn't NEED to input a timer goal, plus I could've just inserted a higher time to start. BUT where I do place blame is that this doesn't happen when you run outside. No technological glitches - a machine doesn't just stop or require you to decrease your speed. I will definitely be aware of this in upcoming runs.

Overall, though, this run did go well, and I was thrilled to have run 5-miles. It was especially motivating because I didn't necessarily prepare my body for a longer run. The previous night I had eaten 20 pieces of Nigiri and drank some wine. Prior to the run, I ate a HUGE lunch and drank a Fresca. Usually, these types of decisions are not conducive of a successful run, but I still managed to do well.