our choices show what we truly are

I decided to do this race for the following reasons: to help my team to maintain its ranking (we are currently in first position with 5 races to do), to help to drag my sorry body out of the door this morning after yesterday run. It costed only 7 euros (that will be refunded by the team) so it was a no excuse situation.

This race is perfectly measured but it is really slow, 9k are uphill and the remaining 1k is downhill.

The weather at 9am was already around 20-25°C, I did 3k as a warm up and to test my legs, they were tired but not sore. My goal was to try to keep MP for the whole distance (4:30/km). We started on time at 10 and I was already sweating, the first km had one big downhill leaving the town of Vejano and then we entered a rural road doing a long loop of about 9km to go back to the start/finish line. The whole course, except for the initial downhill and a second downhill section 1k from the end, is uphill, with big and small bumps, short or long but you keep gaining altitude, without loosing it. I was halfway in 22:04, about a minute faster than anticipated then I progressively lost my advantage and finished the whole thing in 45:08, just  8" slower than planned. I was very happy, I did a quick system check, breathing was fine and my legs were tired but not dead, I immediately went for a 3k cool down to finish the day with 10 miles.

Combining the first 32k yesterday and the 10k  today I have "done" a marathon in 3:18 and change. I know doesn't mean much but it is always good for my dreams.

I came home early so I went for another run by the lake. 8 easy and relaxing miles, before a thunderstorm started rolling in.

Tonight I officially started the winter training season, it means that there is no enough light at 7pm to go running around the lake at night and I had to retreat to the ugly loop 1k long around an industrial area, well lit and without traffic, but overall very depressing.

It will be my running ground every evening for the next 6 months.

8 miles slow  and easy.

Too many things to do tonight after work, unplanned rest day, but I will take it.

I did my first fast workout at the industrial area, 10k in 43:50 then 3k cooldown.

Temperatures are still too high.

Rest day, I drove in the evening to Pescara.

I am in Pescara for the weekend, I decided to do a good general reharsal for the marathon in 2 weeks. I went around the starting line of the marathon and I wanted to do an half marathon at goal marathon pace (4:37/km, 3h:15m total) starting at the same time (9am) and doing exactly the same course. For the first 10k I was on cruise control sun on my back and wind in my face, I extended the distance to 13k because I was feeling good and I thought going for 26k at that pace. As soon as I turned around, face to the sun and wind in my back, things started going south almost immediately, at mile 10 I decided 13.1 was enough at this pace, but during the last 4k I really struggled to keep the pace. It was definitively hot (many thermometers indicated between 30 and 32°C) and as soon as I hit 13.1 in 1:37:30 exactly, I stopped at a drinking fountain and spent the next 5 minutes drinking and dousing myself in a too-late attempt to cooldown. Because I had to go back to the car 5k away I started running at a slow speed more depressed than actually tired.

I felt really bad and depressed, because I thought it was going to be much easier to maintain that pace (as I did in some of my long runs in the last few weeks), the "two" excuses are the usual suspects: the heat and being tired after lots of mileage (for me). For sure if the temperatures won't go down at least 10-15°C in the next two weeks I will reassess my goal to a slower pace for the marathon. I have already decided to move my goal from 3:10 to 3:15 because I am not feeling very confident and I also have another attempt at the end of november in Florence. But if the heat will the same as yesterday even with some more rest and tapering things won't change much, I have already done three races in the heat in the last two months and I know I don't do very well when the temps at the start are above 25°C.

At least I can't blame taper madness because I haven't start tapering yet (and probably I should).