Turning The Corner

My Middle Distance runs have been up-tempo and reassuring lately and today was no exception. Sunday's Long Run felt good and I hit my target time for 18 miles. This week is my first 'Peak Week' and I was curious to see how today's Middle Distance run would go after so many miles on Sunday.

As usual, my plans for the day were scrapped due to unforeseen scheduling problems. I wanted to run after work before meeting Liz for our Tuesday swim. Unfortunately, there was a really bad accident that turned the highway into a parking lot on my way to the gym. I decided to skip the swim altogether and just head home for my run. Liz continued on to the gym and swam alone.

I hadn't planned to run today's Middle Distance as fast as I had last week. I actually intended to keep it relaxed to see if there were any lasting effects from Sunday's run. Then I can pick up the pace later in the week if I'm feeling good. But once I got going, I found my relaxed pace was still under 7 minutes per mile.

This is what I've been waiting for. I've achieved this in my training once before and I'm hoping I've finally turned the corner. In yesterday's post, I talked about the brain's internal 'governor' that can send signals making you feel fatigue and pain in order to conserve energy for emergencies. It seems that my brain is finally learning that I know what I'm doing and I can run 6:45s without dying.

When I think about changes in my pace like this, I visualize a metronome keeping time in my head. It's as if this mental metronome sets the tempo for my 'Base Pace'. It keeps my feet moving in a specific pace range when I'm feeling relaxed. Until recently, my little time keeper would keep me going around 7:00 to 7:15 per mile without me exerting much extra effort. It seems like the metronome is ticking faster and my baseline pace has been moved to 6:45 to 7:00 per mile.

Hopefully, I can keep the tick-tock, tick-tock of my mental clock at this pace for the rest of my training. My Long Runs shouldn't be that fast, but I would Love for everything Middle Distance and shorter to be in the 6:40's now. That way, running 7:00 to 7:17 per mile will feel like a cake walk during the marathon.

Tuesday
Goal For The Day: Middle Distance.
Distance: 10.18 Miles.
Time: 1:09:20. 6:49 Avg. (6:50, 6:14, 6:45, 6:47, 6:41, 6:51, 7:43, 6:59, 7:08, 6:58, 1:20*).
Route: To Rte 66/2 Laps/Home.
Conditions: 67 degrees. 6:15pm.

Notes: Great weather lately! I need to go for more morning runs in October to get used to the chilly temps but these upper-60 runs are pretty darn nice! It's that time of year that running near sunset means returning home covered in gnats. NOT attractive!

Daily Miles: 10.18 Miles
Blog Totals:
  Run - 375.42 Miles.
  Bike - 144.45 Miles.
  Swim - 10,050+ meters.