Thursday, April 19, 2007

Make it mean something

It was a gorgeous day, and I would have felt really bad if I blew off the run. Luckily, I squeezed one in right after work, thanks to my wife's simple question, "what about your run?" when I called to say I was on my way home. I definitely would've ditched if not for that support. Anyway, it was 5K in 24 minutes -- a good, fast pace for me.

About half way through the run, I found myself saying/thinking, "make it mean something" to keep me going at my stepped up pace. Since I have a marathon coming up in 6 weeks, I know that piling on more 3 milers isn't going to get the job done. That I couldn't run further today was purely a function of time, or more accurately a lack of time because I had to get home to see the kids before bed time. So rather than just cruise through the run, I turned it into a "speed" workout. It felt good, and mixed up what is getting to be a fairly boring route.

I have to acknowledge that simply getting out there on a regular basis "means something." It was a nice feeling, though, to have something from within pushing me just a little bit harder today.

1 comment:

Agricola said...

Look, you're training for a marathon so on some leave you are right about making it mean something and 5Ks don't do that, but they do. It's all about mileage and recovery and strength building. Every run can't be a half, nor should it be.

Six weeks out you should shoot to do a long run this weekend of 17-20 miles and then start bringing it down. Every run you do counts for something whether it's training for a marathon or just trying to get in shape like I am. Unless you're a super serious marathoner I'm not sure there is such a thing as junk miles. Every time you go out you achieve something even if it's jut perpetuating the habit.