Managing Expectations

Managing my expectations, especially this early in the season, has never been easy.  You know, after running for as long as I have, you have a pretty good feel for what your fitness level is, but your judgement still can be clouded by the desire to PR, to run well beyond your known fitness level; every stride will be effortless and today is that day where unexpectedly and magically you breeze through the course, blowing by your competition, each mile faster than the last, runner's paradise.  Then reality sets in.

Yesterday's 8k was no exception.  I knew where my fitness level was, somewhere in the 30:20 to 30:30 range, but I have run sub 30, so maybe today was that magical day!  Warm-ups felt good; after 5 or 6 strides everything felt fluid and easy.  Enough of an enticement for me to go for it.  The gun went off and I took off with the lead pack.  The course started with a fairly significant uphill, but held pace throughout.  Hit the mile split at 5:56 and it felt so easy;  yes this was going to be that day.  I relaxed, concentrated on my turnover and readied myself for 4 more sub 6 miles.  Yeah, right.  After a "relaxed" mile two, I checked my split and it was 6:15.  It was windy, but that wasn't it.  I let relaxed become lazy.  Got to work on mile 3 and had to muster everything I could just to run a 6:07.  Mile 4 had less wind and managed a 6:04.  The last .96 miles had some uphill to it, but I managed to stay around 6 flat, finishing in 30:24, 9 seconds slower than last year and 32 seconds off my PR.  No magic today, only reality.  I'm glad I raced the way I did though; my 5 minutes and 56 seconds of denial were wonderful!

Transitioning back to morning running this past week, which always is a sure sign of spring for me.  I love getting back to early morning runs, but not as thrilled with my 9 am bedtime!

Happy Running!

Rick