A "Back" Week

This week I had a nice little 10 mile run. Last time, when I ran our 10 miles I was hating it the whole way. But this week it actually felt pretty good (until around mile 9 when I was just "done").

It is MUCH easier to run with Bill now that I am pacing a bit faster. Before I think it was always a struggle between us, because he always wanted to go faster, and was slowing down to be with me, and I was always going faster than I felt comfortable with. I think I have realized that a lot of running is mind games for me. Perhaps I should have been training faster awhile ago. But then again, perhaps I've done this the right way and I am just reaping benefits.

At any rate, one thing I DO know is that I need to slow down in the beginning miles. So for the next week, I am going to concentrate on negative splitting my runs.

I KNOW I need to do this, because every time I have run this way I am AMAZED with my time. Every time I run like I am used to running (fast at first, then slowly trickling off in the last miles) I feel tired.

When Bill and I got to mile 9 and he asked me how I felt, I could only say "Eh." I explained to him; I wasn't feeling awful, but I felt tired. Not tired like sleepy, but tired like physically tired. I told him I could keep pace for the last mile (which I did) but that if this was the marathon, and I still had 2 miles to go, I would be walking them. He pushed me up the last hill, telling me to keep my form (which I did) and that if I kept my pace (which I did) I would be happy with our result.

We ended with a 1:33:18 for 10.2 miles, which calculates out to a 9:08 pace. Now, I KNOW, with my past results I should have been ecstatic about this. But I told Bill, "You know, I think if we would have started out slower, we could have ended up with a faster pace." He agreed.

So the next few weeks I am going to experiment with negative splits and see what happens. Who knows, maybe I am some weirdo who DOES have to push the pace at the beginning. I doubt this, but I guess I'll find out in the next few weeks. I am chalking it up to a big experiment. Isn't that what training is for anyway? :)