With 12 weeks left to go and having taken yesterday off from running (I did some core and stability work) I was back at it today. First up was a 9 mile run through the streets of Ajax at 5:30 this morning. My goal was to finish in better than 72 minutes. Well despite feeling tired this morning, I was able to complete the run in 70 minutes and 30 seconds.
I felt sluggish this morning and wondered if I had any juice in my tank. Once I got started, though, I was able to relax and just let the run come to me. I utilized lots of mental visualization techniques and I pretended like I was at the race. I purposely did not look at my Garmin too much but would glance at it just to make sure that I was on pace. I was always about 1 minute or more ahead at each mile and that cushion allowed me to relax as well. I stopped for about 20 seconds to eat 1/2 a banana and then headed back for the last 7+ KM's. I actually picked up even more time during that last stretch as I kept my pace under 5 minutes for all but 35 seconds of the last 25 minutes of the run. There was even a few runners who I saw and who I know so that made the run even more special. At one point I was chasing down of them and again I used that as an example of what I will be doing on race day.
Tomorrow will be an easy 4 mile run but knowing me it will probably turn out to be an all out sprint.
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