Smart Coach is smarter than me

1. I like to make lists.

2. I made a folder on my desktop today to organize my lists.

3. I keep a notebook in my car for random creative thoughts and/or list-making. 

4. I made three lists besides this one today: one for Christmas cards, one for Christmas gift-giving, and one for my impending weekend trip to Salina, Kansas.

5. All the organization on my desktop led me to clean out my email box (ugh!!!).  I'm not truly a type A as I stopped myself after 4 pages.

6. I then forced myself to decorate the interior of the house with the Christmas stuff. 

7. I got sidetracked dusting neglected corners.

8. Finally, 2 hours later, I called it quits and decided to do something fun: run!!!!!!!

And of course no good run would be without an epiphany.  I am fairly certain that at least half of my ephiphanies are like the ones I have when I am halfway finished with a bottle of wine.  Good ideas in theory....

But this one actually might have some merit.  I will begin training for marathon #5 next month.  I use Smart Coach for my training program.  I do the speedwork and run the distances exactly as they are written.  However, in my most recent 2 marathons, it occurred to me today that I have been running my LSDs waaaaay too fast.  I am dumb.  Smart Coach is smart. 

I was running them about 20-30 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace.

So it was like I was racing a 16-18-20 mile race every weekend.  Um, gee, I wonder why I felt so unmotivated last year on race day.  I mean, I had the prerace jitters and I was thrilled to be racing #4, but my body and mind were tired.   I had a 2-week taper, but I think the damage was done.

I realized that it was part of the reason that I felt so great for the half 10 days ago.  My body was rested.  My mind was not tired of agonizing over pushing my body to the limits every week.  Gosh, I thought I was doing something smart by thinking I could just do a dress rehearsal and feel fantastic.  Oops. 

So my marathon resolution is now threefold (oy!): more hill training, more strength training, and putting the kabosh on the kamikaze long-distance runs.  I'll be happy in I succeed in one category...

As for today's run--I hit start on the Garmin and vowed to not take a peek until the end of my 7-miler.  I had run 7 yesterday at a LSD pace and felt terrible.  I just let my mind wander and put forth a 5 out of 10 effort.  The last 2 miles, I felt pretty great so it was more like a 7 or 8 effort.  I was super happy to find that a medium effort was a sub 8 pace.  Yay!  Today's splits: 7:56, 7:53, 7:55, 7:51, 7:50, 7:45, 7:21.