I just couldn't resist going running today. I told myself it would probably be a good idea to take a week or so off.
Did P90X and an hour of really fun Mountain Biking at Flatirons Vista and Marshall Mesa this morning.
But by the end of the work day on my drive home from dealing with a house issue in Denver, I got the serious itching all of a sudden to run a flat marathon around my neighborhood. It was weird. And it just kept getting more persistent.
At first my schemes were "OK, I'm going to rest up and run a marathon around my neighborhood in 2 weekends."
But two weekends was too far away. Then it was this weekend. By the time I was home my running shorts were virtually already on in my mind and I was doing it tonight.
And not only was I going to do it tonight, but I was going to do it in 3 hours, on a 1 mile loop around the lake in my neighborhood.
Then reality struck home in my mind when I walked in the door and saw other people. "Oh yeah" I remembered, "I'm still on earth, and I just DNF'd a 50 mile race on Saturday because my hip tendons were inflamed and causing me to limp". But it was fun dreaming.
But being the eccentric person my wife says I am, I still packed up 4 water bottles, 3 EFS liquid shots, and a headlamp and headed to the lake after dinner.
I really didn't expect to be able to run a marathon tonight. Nor did I think it was a particularly wise thing to attempt at this exact moment. But man oh man was I itching to run, and to run at least moderately fast and expend some of my pent up energy. And I figured I may as well go prepared to go long in case I was feeling really good and itching for more.
You see...unlike all those other lucky folks who finished Run Rabbit Run, I didn't get the chance to expend my mental and physical energy. For me, at mile 32, the race hadn't even begun yet. When I dropped out at 32 miles, I felt totally fresh other than my stupid left hip. Mentally and physically I had been prepared to go 50 miles and lay it all out there the last 15.
So I think that's why today the pent up energy was just bursting for an outlet.
So I started running, and I decided I would run a 6:55 pace around the lake for as long as I felt good doing it.
It was a joy. It felt fantastic. It felt smooth, easy and moderately quick. And my hip didn't hurt at all. The pace was not relaxed, but not hard. It felt like a good marathon pace.
At about 6 miles into the run I decided I didn't want to push my luck with my hip, and I realized at that point I wanted to go see my wife and the kids who I hadn't seen much of today way more than I wanted to keep running. I had my fill for the night. So I rounded out a 10K and stopped at 6.2 miles. Time: 43:24 - 6:59/mile avg - average HR 155. Felt good to get my heart pumping above the 140 range for a change. I have been in taper/recovery mode for a couple weeks, and it was refreshing to change it up and pick up the pace to marathon pace a bit.
All summer I've been so into trails that I had zero desire to run flat. This winter I may just find myself somewhat interested in mixing in some good road training and build my mileage base up from 25-30/week avg up to 40-50/week. I think right now I could pretty easily do a sub 1:30 half marathon. A bit of a stretch right now might be 1:25. But I think with a consistent winter of base training, and core exercise, I could be down below 1:20 on a half in the spring, and capable of the 2:50 range in a road marathon. I think I may give that a shot this spring. And I'll probably do my own little marathon sometime in the next few weeks for a long run, once I feel I'm out of the woods on my hip tightness. Going to get some ART done soon.
Then again, who knows...there are some cool trail 50K's through the winter/spring too I will probably want to check out. So many cool options these days.
Running is addicting.
