Running fast automatically means you are outside of your running comfort zone. Going outside of your comfort zone at races or at other times is a good thing; it challenges us as runners and lets us know where we can improve.
As part of my marathon training, I have incorporated mile repeats. Last night included a ½ mile warm-up, then 3 mile repeats at 10K pace, or 6:30/M.
Now the thing about running at night, and especially running fast at night, is that it is a total mind screw. Everything, I mean everything, seems further away. So my run-½-mile-then-turn-around at street light and head back seemed more like “I can’t believe how far away that light is, I’ve been running forever, this route must be longer than a ½ mile, everything is black except for the street light a mile away and my headlight, how fast am I actually going?”
So, you can only imagine how running outside of your comfort zone is jacked up exponentially by running at night. Not to mention that my light wouldn’t stay at my desired 45-degree angle while running fast, but insisted on facing straight down. Which caused a somewhat cool but eerie effect of having my breath, strangely illuminated by my running light, vaporize in front of me. I am not looking forward to doing the same thing, plus one mile repeat, next week.
Splits: 6:13, 6:20; 6:23. Apparently I was going a wee bit fast my first one.
December / 2013 Recap and The End
10 years ago
3 comments:
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You are getting really fast. Those are some strong mile repeats. I think you've already passed "Nitmos fast" and are well into "Spike fast" now. Rock on.
How about running in the dark no matter what time of day? :) I do all my runs in the pitch black predawn hours. I've gotten used to being a creature of the dark.
Nice job rocking those mile repeats!
Those are some smoking fast mile repeats in the dark. Imagine how much faster they will be in the light of day!
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