This morning, only five of us showed up at the Sunday morning practice run. I guess we all expected a small crowd since many people would be away visiting family or out at their cottages this long weekend.
In the end, the run went by quite well. We covered 4.2km with a few 6+1 intervals thrown in (we started 5+1s last Monday, with 6+1s to start this Monday). The breeze was nice and cool, which was a big change in comparison to Wednesday’s hellish run. The humidity nearly killed me that day. Today, the weather was quite comfortable. We ran at a bit of a slow/easy pace. With 5 of us, we could afford to take it easy and keep things steady. This pacing made things easy.
At the end, the lot of us tried to analyze why today was so much easier despite sticking in a few 6′s in there. We figured that on class days or on Wednesday practices when there are lots of people, the tendency is for everyone to pick up the pace early on just so that no one falls behind. The result is that us “back-packers” run out of steam pretty quickly. On days like today, with fewer people, it’s easier to pace yourself properly because there’s no pressure to go fast.
One of the others runners told me: “I can’t go fast just to keep up anymore. I have to go at my own pace to not die. Screw that!” She’s absolutely right. We’ve been told this many times, but it’s hard to really follow through on it because of various pressures. “Run your own race.” It’s kind of hard when you see a lot of people pulling far ahead, but…if it means not killing yourself, it’s a winning strategy.
ETA:
There’s another run tomorrow morning. I’m actually eager to participate. It’s so weird coming from someone so unathletic. Thing is, after this morning’s run, my left calf has been feeling quite sore. When I move my leg in certain directions, I feel a bit of muscle discomfort. I’m taking Advil and rubbing some muscle cream on the area. I really want to run on it, but if it still kills me in the morning, I’ll have to miss it.
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