They Say the Old Adage is True

At the risk of opening myself up for public mockery; since the weather has broken and we have had an unprecedented string of sunny and quasi-warm days, I oft find myself singing John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” and even Cat Steven’s “Morning Has Broken.” *Begin dispensing of insults as if you were flinging rotting fruit at Quasimodo.

I remain somewhat stymied when it comes to how to fit meaningful training into my new work schedule…let alone time to post and comment. But since March 1st I have hit every scheduled run. On one particular morning I had to run early or forfeit my chance to run at all. I laid in bed and struggled with it—even though the weather was perfect for morning running. But I got up and got outside, and I ran. When it was all said and done, I was thrilled I’d done it.

So, like they say: You never regret a run you do, but you always regret runs you skip. So true. The problem is that I feel the exact same way with stopping at McDonalds for a large chocolate (or Mint in honor of St. Patty’s Day) shake and large fries. Seriously, I have been known to bitterly bring up the fact that I didn’t get a late night McRush a few days prior.

Last weekend I had a 24M run on the schedule. I dropped it to 22M because my attempt to run 22M on a treadmill two week prior was a complete fail (only 17M). I chose the hills-of-hell route. I paid dearly. I was aiming for a 7:30/M average. I hit a 7:40/M average. Now, it isn’t the end of the world, but with only one 20M+ run left, I’m sure I’m not ready to run anything close to a 7:15/M average necessary to BQ at Boston.

Which is good, because I haven’t planned to try that, and because I’m just not there. The timing of this training and the weather have successfully conspired to frustrate my training, so I’m going there to run hard and run for fun. My plan is to hit a 3:30, or a comfortable 8:00/M pace.

But let’s just be honest as a dollar-eating goat, I’ll probably get there and hit the first few miles at an easy 7:10 and think “Why not Spike? Go for it! The Gods favor you today.” And I’ll go for it. And somewhere around Heartbreak Hill ‘it’ will come back with vengeance. Just as Pandora is fated to open the box, so am I fated to wholeheartedly ignore my ‘race plan.’

I love running.