Running ragged

Dif­fi­cult, painful race today. I did four miles that includ­ed a very steep hill on Ver­mont Street. It seemed like I’d nev­er catch my breath, but I plowed through and fin­ished aston­ish­ing­ly in 36:20. My goal had been a nine-minute mile pace but I gave that up pret­ty quick­ly after I felt how much my calves were hurt­ing. To come so close to my goal when I was afraid I was­n’t going to fin­ish at all is a lit­tle grat­i­fy­ing. Also a good reminder that I often feel like quit­ting in the first cou­ple miles, but “feel­ing like” quit­ting does­n’t mean I actu­al­ly have to.

I think run­ning 5 miles up a moun­tain yes­ter­day morn­ing was not good prepa­ra­tion for my 4 mile race today. Hon­est­ly, the hill was a bit of relief because it did­n’t hurt my calves so much.

Def­i­nite­ly look­ing for­ward to a cou­ple days off from run­ning, and hop­ing “a cou­ple days” is enough.

Words Of A Fool—Love and Rockets