Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Take a day off!

One day. What a difference one day makes.

My left ankle has been tender for awhile now. I woke up on Monday with it sore from my weekend training, which was a diminished workload anyway.

On Saturday I ran seven miles with my 10K Group Training Program at a ten-minutes-per-mile pace. That program’s 10K race is only three weeks away and since I was one of only two coaches who showed up, I took half the runners out.

On Sunday I practiced running at an 8:30-minutes-per-mile pace, the target pace I set for the upcoming marathon which I recently signed up for. I averaged 8:09 for the first five miles, not very close to an 8:30 pace you might say, but for those of us who still don’t have a Garmin, we have to just run by feel on the trail from one milepost to another, and see where we’re at on the watch when we arrive. I then ran the sixth mile in 7:38 to practice bearing down at the end.

Monday my ankle was suffering so I "just" ran a mile, at what I hoped was an easy 8-minute pace (7:51). Tuesday morning I lay in bed wiggling my ankle and I decided to take a day off from running, a decision I second-guessed all day long. I had put together a team for my agency for a 3-mile race coming up the next morning (today), the ACLI Capital Challenge, and my ankle was not feeling good all day long yesterday.

This morning though, my ankle felt much better after a full day of rest. Imagine that! (Right: A, M and G at the 2006 ACLI Capital Challenge 3-Mile Race in Anacostia Park in SE. The race t-shirts were yellow that year. After running a 21:22, M didn't run the next year.)

I slipped on my heavy ankle brace and went off to the 8 am race, feeling that perhaps I wouldn’t let the team down this year. It was a beautiful morning to run, cool, breezy and sunny, with no humidity. (Left: My agency's 2007 team. The race t-shirts were green last year. After running a 21:09, A departed the agency.)

I was third on my team of five, finishing over three minutes behind my agency’s rock star, G, and two minutes behind M, who always beats me but who has been absolutely killing me lately at the monthly noontime Tidal Basin 3K race. However, I achieved my personal gold standard because I hit every one of my pre-race goals. I PR’ed, broke 22 minutes for the distance, got my 3-mile PR faster than my 5K PR and beat my doppelganger Peter, who had beaten me the prior two years. I’ll give you a race report after the official results go up.

8 comments:

Sunshine said...

Congratulations on achieving the goals.. and continued healing of the ankle.

Susan said...

I hope the rest pays off. I am sure it will.

Anonymous said...

Happy to hear that you killed it this year! Sorry I couldn't be there. Trust me, the running group was one of the reasons to stay... -A

jeanne said...

wow! i'm convinced i should get back in bed! congrats! and watch that ankle.

which marathon?

Anonymous said...

Hey Peter,
Happy May day. As a non-runner, I still maintain that swollen joints are Mother Nature telling you something.

But then again when my hands/fingers/wrists do the same from knitting, well... that's different.

What marathon?

akshaye said...

Glad the rest worked and hope the ankle is back to normal!

Sunshine said...

This morning TV news said the detour for the fire yesterday added about a quarter mile to the course... they will measure today... Adjust for Boston qualifiers, etc.

CewTwo said...

It is good to be able to pull it off. Great story!

Thanks for sharing!