post the forty-fourth, 2013

so. about yesterday's run. i already explained it was an 18-miler. the format was 6 miles easy, 6 miles MP, and 6 miles easy. MP is marathon pace, which for me is meant to be 9:00 minutes per mile.

it is 6 miles to the park, 1 mile around the park. so, 6 miles there, 6x1 mile, then 6 miles home. easy peasy. the only problem was the 6 miles in the park, meant to be MP (9m/m), turned out to be anywhere from 8:27 to 7:57. there's actually about .05 or so from the "end mile" to the "start mile" and i was looping around so that added .05 per loop. does that make sense? if i had gone from start to end, touched the end sign, turn around and went back to start, that would have been two miles. but i went start to end then continued the loop to the start, which totals 1.05. ANYWAY THAT JUST MAKES IT WORSE because it means i did around 6.3 (6.38 according to my watch) in 50:40.

why is it a problem to run fast, ace? isn't running fast the point of running? the fastest person wins, right?

i know. it's confusing, but what is good for racing isn't always good for training. training too fast can lead to injury and over-tiredness. it's improper race preparation.

so, ace, if going fast is so terrible, why are you doing it?

hell if i know.

seriously, hell if i know. but i have given in quite a bit of thought, and here's what i have come up with.

1. my watch is broken. -- not likely. one thing it doesn't do well is give accurate mid-mile paces. like, at the half-mile, it could say 10:20 pace, and i could end up the mile in 8 minutes. i don't have the latest technology, but it's really quite good at clocking mile distance and mile pace most all of the time. i don't think my watch is broken.

2. i am delusional. -- highly likely. never to be discounted.

3. i don't know what the fock i am doing. -- i think this is the most likely culprit. i've been running since junior high, but i've rarely if ever been completely serious about it, so i've never paid this much attention.

3a. effort-to-pace is (duh) the amount of effort you put into holding a particular pace. on a treadmill, because the pace is set by the machine, the environment is controlled, so i would think this would be a good place to learn about effort-to-pace. it's really hard for me to hold a 9m/m - takes a lot of effort, work, hard breathing, fast leg turnover, etc. outside, when i put in that sort of effort, i get something around 8m/m. i get a whole more minute for the same effort. why? i am not sure, but i guess it's because a treadmill takes a different sort of effort than running outside, so i can't just equate the two. this is a bummer because it means the place i can definitely control the pace - a treadmill - isn't helpful.

3b. slowing down must not be that simple because i am trying but not accomplishing it. i think i might be equating "relax" with "slow down" but when i relax i go faster. not even sure that makes sense. (see point #2)

3c. i am more concerned about too slow than too fast. this just dawned on me this morning while i was jogging around at RECOVERY PACE. i don't consciously think about wanting to come in under the mark instead of over it, but it's possible that is in the back of my mind. i should probably try to bring it to the front of my mind and then flick it on the forehead.

bottom line, i am doing something wrong, and i am open to suggestions for fixing it.