Staying Within My Limits

 It's been a week of pacing myself.  I've run 8 miles each of the first three days of the week, each day making the effort not to give too much effort.  As my coach noted this week, I've actually been pretty consistent for the past few months, and have developed solid base from which to work off.  When I have such a base, I tend to get a little antsy and I start pushing a little (too) hard.  When pushing too hard comes in the context of the rest of my life, that's when I start feeling the fatigue.  This week has become about staying within my limits.  I've really tried hard not to try hard.  So far, I've been successful. Each day's run has unfolded to be a little different, but I've really stayed within my limits for the first seven miles.  I play around a little over the last mile, but not to the degree that I'm going to put myself over my limits.  With one exception. I do take the last uphill 150m to my house pretty hard.  That's ok.  I can stand 50 seconds of intensity at the end of my run.  

When comparing the last few days to my 8 mile runs at the beginning of this endeavor just 8 weeks ago, I'm completing the run in about 75-77 minutes, at a comfortable to solid Zone 2 effort, which just couple of months ago translated to 82-85 minutes.  That's a pretty considerable improvement over two months, and also reflects that I restarted my running nearly three months ago.  It's been a long time since I've only been a runner.  It's also been a long time since I've run nearly every day.  For now, the key is to stay within my limits, until I feel the urge not to.  

My leaning right now is to keep this entire week calm and relatively easy, and decide on Sunday whether I want to break out with a harder run.  If I look back at my training logs over the past several weeks, at certain points, I just start pushing harder during my runs.  That's me.  On a certain level, I run based on how I feel, which is great.  On another level, I sometimes have the need to test my limits.  On yet another level, I strive not to have limits!   I guess, like Ironman, running can be a metaphor for life!