"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.”

- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Good and Bad All at Once

Today's run was a struggle. It was a little bit chilly still at 6:30am and despite stretching things out, I could tell it took longer than usual to get the blood moving, muscles warm, etc. For some reason I wasn't focusing very well either, as evidenced by my sloppy running form. I repeatedly found myself with my hands too high, my head too low and my breathing all over the place. The consequences of my hands often drifting north of my waist were evident later on in the run as my shoulder and neck muscles became tired and tight.

All of that said, I was pretty shocked with my 5k split time of 23:50 -- nearly two full minutes fast than the same 5k I ran for the first time three weeks ago. Overall, I achieved my goal of doing the 5.5 miles in under 44 minutes, clocking in at 43:52. I don't run with any sort of timing device on my person (more on this later), so, despite how I felt during the run, I feel pretty good about it now that I've completed it.

Rest day tomorrow and then a week of prep for the Liberty House 10k next Saturday.

No comments: