Quick running update.
Wore the Asics, at the gym, planned 4 miles or 40 minutes whichever came first.
Music was Green Day’s “American Idiot”.
Only goal was to complete the distance, didn’t worry about pace. Had been tired and hungover all day (made a couple of vodka martinis last night while watching the “Firefly” DVD set. Good show. More on that later) so wasn’t sure how well I’d be running.
I set the pace at a steady 10:00 mile, and just started running. Tried to just float and not think about the distance or the time, and in retrospect, I’d say I got about 60-65% of the way there. The negative voice was there in the back of my head, as usual, and my legs were stiff for about the first mile and a half. After that, I started loosening up. Around mile 3 I started to breathe heavier, but I focused on tightening up my form and lifting my knees more, and it got better. The negative voice told me around then that I could stop at 3.5 miles, I’d proved my point, but I ignored it and continued on to the finish.
As I approached 37:00 total, I grew bored with the steady pace, and cranked the speed up to 7.0 miles per hour, or an 8:34 pace. I wanted to push through to the end, and something something ‘lactic threshold‘ blah blah blah. Basically I wanted to give a wake-up call to my body. It worked, I kept up the faster pace until 40:00 even rolled around on the indicated, and I had travelled 4.04 miles. It wasn’t enough to much change my average pace over the entire distance, but it did get my blood and brain and body moving a bit faster. Felt good.