Saturday, October 10, 2009

Land of Hurt

To the track! I opted out of the premier road race in our area this morning. The St. Johns Sunshine run. I've ran that puppy off and on since the mid-eighties but my MP run was more important. A beautiful morning with sunny skies, and occasional cloud, good breeze from the North, and cool, cool temps-38! Shorts, long sleeve shirt, hat and gloves. I had decided to slow the pace and try to really establish a true MP. My body was so sore and stiff, this has been a challenging week, dealing with fatigue. As I started the workout I could see this was going to be a test! Started in lane eight and began to knock off laps. Lots of activity on the track. Novice runners, walkers, kids, it was a pretty busy place but not a problem.
At around mile nine I began to hurt. The kind of hurt you experience when your glycogen stores are getting low, when your legs are heavy and feel like concrete, like around mile 20 in the marathon. I just talked to myself saying " Mark, don't let up, hold the pace," etc...
Seemed like I held on okay but when I finished my quads were toasted. So it's in the books!
Totals-14.06 miles/ 2:07:31/ 9:04's. Here are the splits-9:49, 9:13, 8:55, 8:55, 8:49, 8:40, 8:44, 8:42, 8:41, 9:06, 9:27, 9:24, 9:02, 9:22. ( Got my 50 in!) I think this was a good effort for the fact that I was in the land of hurt for around five miles. My next run will be in California! We are staying at the La Quinta in Carlsbad and I hope to run from there Monday morning sometime. Otherwise next week is gonna be a booger getting miles in because of the conference but it'll all work out. Peace!
Good luck again to all racing today and tomorrow!!

4 comments:

Marlene said...

Congrats on an excellent MP run, Mark!

Anne said...

You'll love running in Carlsbad, especially along the 101 coastline. We've been having unusually cool, perfect fall weather too. You'll love it!!

I know you're on a business trip, but do let me know if you want to meet up while you're in town. Meg lives much closer than me to where you're staying, but depending on the time of day, I might be able to make it up there.

Unknown said...

Whoooaa... nice nice nice MP run dude !!! You held it up nicely. Good Luck with your upcoming race.

Mark said...

Anne, I so wanted to meet up with you and Meg. It looks like the conference is going to take nearly all of our time, then we head back immediately after. We will be in "Old Town" of San Diego tomorrow evening, I hope. Depending on when it lets out.

Sauna

      This is the most wonderful time of year! I love the heat and humidity! Yet I still get out earlier due to my advanced age! 4.4 miles! ...