Running Reality

Thursday morning I met Abby and Erin for a run.  It was a slow, easy pace and we covered 5 miles without any difficulty.  I didn't wear my watch so I have no idea what our pace was, but I never felt pushed.

Saturday morning I met the running group at Lake Elkhorn.  My goal was to run 5-6 miles but I wanted to see how far most of the group was going.  Because the running group is made up of people training for both a full marathon and a half marathon, most of the people were running much more than 5-6 miles.  During our warm up stretches, we went around the circle and said how far we were planning to run.  The longest was 13 miles.  Denise and Clarese both said they were running 5 miles.

So when we split up into groups, I joined the Eses (my affectionate nickname for them...best friends who are always together and just so happen to have rhyming names...can you blame me?).  They are really fun girls and I always like hanging out with them.  But the Eses are fast!  Again I didn't wear my watch (forgot to charge it) so I had no idea what our pace was. But I felt like I was running at an aggressive pace for the entire run.

The Eses do a run/walk interval.  Denise wears a device that beeps every so often.  I still haven't figured out their pattern because for the first 2 1/2 miles they ignored the beeps.  Then they would walk from one beep until it beeped again.  But they didn't walk on every beep.  I couldn't tell when to walk or when to keep running, but they knew because they both stopped running simultaneously when it was time for the walk interval.  By this point of the run, I was really looking forward to the walk breaks because I was dying with the pace they were running!  Clarese told me that they were running a 10 minute per mile pace but it sure felt faster than that to me.  Then the last mile she said they were running a 9:30 pace.  I simply couldn't keep up when we went up a hill so I slowed to a more comfortable pace and let them run on ahead.

Granted it was humid, but I really did not expect myself to be struggling that much to keep up a 10 minute pace.  I realize that if I'm going to expect to run a decent time in my triathlons, I have to stop neglecting my run training.  I know I've said this before, but after reality slapped me in my face on Saturday, I am determined to get back some of my speed. 

The alarm is already set to get up in the morning and run the neighborhood loop.  Now if I can just remember to charge my watch...