Pre-pandemic I was supposed to be running the Capital City 10K today with a few of my Austin friends. It’s been a while since I’ve done an official 10K race (I can’t remember the last one, to be honest) so I was excited to see how I could do at that distance. Of course, it was canceled weeks ago now but we decided to try for our own 10Ks this weekend and do text check-ins.
We didn’t line up at the same time, but all ended up running at some point this morning (my original plan was yesterday but it poured all day here). I had a disadvantage of my own making that had me last to the starting line:a four-glasses-of-wine-mini-hangover from the night before. And then a morning recovery of Diet Coke and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Not exactly your breakfast of champions.
It was motivating seeing the check-in selfies and times of other friends coming in so I eventually got myself moving. I decided to run a different route down to Zilker Park so I could try for a faster time than my normal Greenbelt trail running would allow and listen to music (like I’ve done for races) rather than my audiobook that I use for normal workouts. It made it feel more like a real race even though I was running alone.
The run was probably harder than it needed to be. See again — wine, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc — but I was determined to try for a fast time. I’d done a six-mile run a few months ago in just under an hour during a workout and that had been really fast for me, but since averaging 9-min miles at my half marathon a month ago I now knew I could go faster. I breathed heavy and tried to keep up my pace but it fluctuated mile to mile. I’m not sure if my fast early miles helped or hurt me in the end when I was tiring and really regretting not better preparing my body for a hard run.
I clocked myself at 53:32 for a 6.21-mile run. That’s an 8:36 average pace. My first mile was a 7:31 and I lagged from there (finishing closer to 9-min mile pace for the last two miles). But also I can run a 7:31-mile? Dudes, I think I can keep getting faster if I work at it.
I’m counting this as a replacement for the long runs (10 miles ish) I’ve been trying to do each weekend since this was more of a hard effort. It’s a balance for me to chill out and not get obsessive but also run so I can get my endorphin high and keep my endurance up to take on new challenges when the world opens up again.
It was nice to have the accountability of friends doing this and getting into more of a race mindset today. We’re all doing our best to keep connecting and keep creating things to look forward to. I rewarded myself with a healthy dose of Brooklyn 99, cleaning my apartment while finishing Glennon Doyle’s audiobook Untamed, and actually spending some decent time writing fiction. Now back to Brooklyn99.
With Love,
Natalie
Go you! I’m quite impressed with how extraordinarily well you are dealing with these difficult times.
Be well.