Monkey on my Back
Monkey on my Back Ever since seeing my run split of 2 hours at Duke 1/2, I’ve had this monkey on my back. Based on the times that my friends, Scottie and Jennifer , yelled out to me, I think I ran the first lap in 1:04. That means I had to do the 2nd lap in 55 minutes. I wasn’t even sure if that was physically possible for me. I began to wonder if maybe I missed a turn or something. I guess my mentor, Jon Farber, is right, that I still have insecurities about my athletic abilities. So, today, I plotted out a 6.5 mile run course which is hillier than Duke. Not too hard to find hills here in Chapel Hill ! And I nailed it in 55 minutes! Zone 3. That 55 minute time even includes stopping to eat a Gu and taking my time to drink some water – to simulate what I did at the aid station around mile 7. And my legs weren’t exactly fresh this morning, either And I feel great right now, like I could go out and run some more. So, that monkey on my back is gone. I guess I really did have a breakthrough race. And truly I have had a breakthrough in my running. I have waited so long for this moment and worked so hard for it. I’ve finally learned how to dial in a pace and hold onto it. My friend Rebecca calls this a ’sweet spot’. I like that! For the first half of the Duke run, I was shooting for my long run pace of 9:45, which is top of Zone 2, moderately hard. After mile 7 – after I got past my ‘ Suffer Section ‘ – I started going ‘all out balls to the wall’ giving it everything I had left. And it worked. A huge thank you to Stacey Richardson for helping me find fast running legs. I can’t wait until B2B. I am going for Locker #1 . And a huge shout out to Scottie and Jennifer for coming out to cheer me on. It DID help- ALOT ! It was probably kind of stupid of me to go out for a hard run just two days after doing a hard race. I should be recovering and stretching and going easy. But I had to get this monkey off my back. I haven’t yet written a complete race report because I was in such a funk about this. I can do that now that the monkey is gone Comparison: Duke 1/2 run course 13.1 miles 1.7% Average Grade Total Elevation Gain: 1,178.00 feet “Monkey on my Back” route 6.51 miles 2.0% Average Grade Total Elevation Gain: 692.00 feet Check it out : Recommended Training Plan Book: …Triathlete Magazine’s Essential Week by Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzerald …if you found this post inspiring, buy me a coffee! By the time your rss reader get this post here is 4 comments ,Welcome you come to leave your opinion !
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Monkey on my Back
