our choices show what we truly are

Today I did a real test of my feet and of my fitness.

I was running with a couple of friends this morning who wanted to do an 18k with the following plan: 5k warm up, 10k at 4:30/k, final 3 at 4:20/k. We started a little bit later at 9:30 am and it was warmer than I liked it, it is still incredibly warm to be mid october.

First 5k were at conversational pace at 5:18/k average pace, it was a good warm up, then we moved to the next level I was the only one at 4:30/k my two friends were a little bit more excited, after a hill we were all together again for 1k and then we spread out 50-100m apart until the end. I lost a few seconds in the middle when I fumbled my car keys but other than that I was focused on maintaining speed and good form. I did the 10k at 4:29/k average pace, the last 3k I went 4:18, 4:18, 4:12. While I could have easily maintained 4:30/k (instead of those 4:1X) for at least a couple of more kms, 4:15 is my current speed limit.

Once back to the car I drank some water, ate some candies and decided to jog a few more kms at whatever pace was left, I wanted to do 10-12k but 8 k was the distance left in my legs today. I did the final 8 at 5:34 AP. Overall 26k at 4:57/k.

Tomorrow morning I will know whether my feet can stand this kind of beating, at lunch time I will also have my sixth shockwave treatment.

Today it was somehow the day of truth and the day of decisions. This morning my PF was worse than the last five days but still much better than before I started the shockwave treatments. My legs were also tired from yesterday tempo/medium run. I signed up back in may for the Florence marathon on november 25th, but right now I don't think I will do it. I will post pone it to next year. My main problem right now is my fitness, yesterday I couldn't go past 16miles, plus I have never done a 20 miler in the last 6 months and I had only the month of september as a good training month. My goal for the marathon would have been an honest 3:30 but right now under good conditions I can probably do 8:00/mile for 20 mile and then I would die. My speed is there but the distance is not.

On top of that I don't want to rush trying to pile up as many miles as possible in a month and risking of making all the progresses with the PF gone and going back to where I was three weeks ago.

Today I had the sixth shockwave treatment at least the treatment itself is no longer painful and the post-treatment relief is still there. Tonight I did 8.1 miles in 1:15, not exactly fast, but without the stress of a marathon in a month I really enjoyed the perspective of rebuilding my aerobic base, slowly.

Speed workout 5X1600 with 400m recovery jog. I did this workout on my winter course that is a 750m loop half uphill, half downhill. These were my splits: 6:37, 6:27, 6:30, 6:35, 6:30. Except for the first mile I was consistent around a 6:30 effort, the deviation is related to the start on the uphill section or on the downhill part. 2.2k warm up and up to 16.1 k as a cool down. It was a good run.

Seveth shockwave treatment today, treatment is fine and in the morning the stiffness is almost gone. Tonight my legs were heavy, after 4 easy miles my legs were still heavy, I decided to pack and go home.

I started with a slow run, then I went progressively faster and finished at a good clip. It was nice because also the weather was good for running, it will change in a few days.

8th shockwave treatment, no more pain than usual, I am really looking forward to finishing this thing and see if I will maintain the improvement I achieved so far.

I wanted to run tonight but the heavy storm changed my plans, remained inside sweating on the bike trainer for one hour.

I started at 5:00/km and slowly accelerated until mile 10, it was windy and rainy, after 10 miles I was done, I didn't have any energy to battle the wind and the cold and finished an half marathon in 1:44. I was really lacking mental and physical energies at the end to keep fighting against mother nature.