A beautiful run…

Yesterday I did a tempo run. Warm up 20 min, Tempo run for 15 min, easy for 4, tempo again for 15, 40 min cool down.

The cool down was long because I ran too far away from home in my second tempo run.

My fear in marathon training is that I train too hard too fast. Three weeks ago, my tempo run was 10 min, 10 min. As each week progresses, I upped the duration. 10 min, 12 min. 12 min, 15 min.

15 min was on my mind the whole day. That’s 900 seconds.

I was sluggish at work yesterday. Last week has been tiring. After sitting in the house for a few minutes, I decided to go out for the run.

Clouds were gathering and the air is humid. Not sure whether it will rain. It doesn’t matter.

Legs feeling pretty good during warm up. The first tempo run was fast. The last few minutes ended off with me running down a hill. Legs were moving steady. Fast turnover. Arms were light.

As the second tempo run starts, thoughts of doubt come in. Would my legs willing to hold the pace? Would I feel like crap?

900 seconds countdown begin. Since I am running longer than last tempo run, I had to increase the distance of the route. I started to venture to unknown neighborhood. The focus was keeping the pace.

900 seconds gone by quickly. 500 seconds. 120 seconds to go. Done.

When I stopped, the rain started. It first started with a few drizzled. Then it started to pour.

No one was on the streets. Not a single soul. I spotted a few runners before it started to pour. I hope they got back home.

It took a while before I realized I was getting drenched. I wondered if this will be the same weather on race day. I thought about how great I felt from the run. I was tired but not the crap feeling from pushing too hard. I thought about how my body continued to adapt as a runner.

I got home, dried myself and took a nice Epsom salt bath. I ordered some books online, answered some emails and went to bed early.

Indeed, it was definitely a good run…