Victory?

The good news is, my (comically overinflated) confidence in my legs has returned (my how long and lean, and yet also muscular they are!), thanks to this morning's track workout. I started out conservatively, running the first 800 a hair slow. No way I was going to blow up on the first repeat again this week.

The bad news? Well, besides getting up at 4:50am do to this workout (for real, these early early wake ups give my goldfish anxiety. He doesn't do well with bright lights and noises at 5:00am. Me either, Four, me either...), I still ran these too fast. Now to some, that sounds like a problem akin to "my diamond shoes are pinching my feet," or "my wallet is too small for all my money." (See also: "first world problems;" "white whine"). But the takeaway lesson from last week's speed workout (also, from life) was meant to be "develop a plan and stick to it," not just "go hard and fast" (that's for later...). Last week showed the worst-case scenario when you don't stick to your plan. Just because I didn't crash and burn again this week doesn't mean I did this workout the way in which it was intended.

The dirty truth:
3:31
3:24
3:23
3:22
3:23
3:23

Now, some of you may look at those and think "well great! You're on your way to running a 3:23 marathon in October!" You idiots. This workout isn't just about speed. Even with my (stratospheric) confidence in my racing ability (see ya in Wave 1, Corral 2 in Boston, just right behind Kara...), I know that, rather than indicating a forthcoming 10 minute PR and guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon, these splits tell me I worked too hard this morning. My plan was to run 3:30s, but I put in more effort than I needed to, so I was ahead of my target pace. And while I'm all for hard work, working too hard on one run means you won't have as much energy as you should for other things. Like Friday's goal marathon pace run (my purgatory). Or this weekend's long run (possibly while water-logged, which requires even more energy than usual, both to carry my soggy body all those miles, and to bitch about the weather in New York in the summer). Or, bone dancing (sorry, IMan).

So while I wish I could tell you I had a perfect workout today and applied every lesson I've ever learned, I can't. I made some progress over last week, but I've still got work to do if I want to execute a good strategy.

(That said, I'm still hot, skinny, smart, and funny. Restored confidence is the coolest!)