This weekend, I did another 12 mile run, and it was rough. I didn’t get enough sleep the night before (thank you, basketball), and I just wasn’t feeling it. It was a slog to just get started, but I forced myself out.
This run was another paced run, where I had 4 miles of warmup and cooldown and another 8 at set paces. I think I’m supposed to be working on getting faster.
With my brain half asleep and my body fighting me, I just could not find my pace. But I wasn’t too slow. I was too fast. I can’t decide if this is a good thing or not. On one hand, it’s awesome that even a bad run can be faster than anticipated. On the other hand, I really need to learn to pace myself.
When I let myself run too fast, that’s when I run into heart rate issues. I push too hard and my HR monitor beeps at me, telling me I need to slow down. Usually, I don’t have that problem on a training run, but I did yesterday, early in the run. I managed to settle in and clear that up, but it’s something I’m going to have to keep an eye on, especially as the temperatures rise with the changing seasons.
It can be frustrating to not be able to push as hard as I want and to have to slow down just when I’m feeling fast, but the other option is to just not run at all, so I have to remember to be thankful that I can be out there in the first place.