Back Down to Earth
" 44' 27" 18 " flashed back at me from my stopwatch. Could that be right?
I racked my brain trying to recall what was my normal five mile training time. Was it in the forty-seven minute or forty-six minute range? Forty-six sounded about right with a quarter of a minute thrown in for good measure.
I repeated to myself the time, "forty-four minutes and twenty-seven seconds..." That's damn near two minutes off of my five mile training run time. I was thrilled; however, it just didn't seem possible.
As I walked the quarter mile back to the house I couldn't really pinpoint the reason why I was able to turn such a fast training time, at least for me, while not experiencing any side effects from such an effort. It seemed almost effortless.
I performed my cool down and headed in the house just as Nancy was arriving home. I cycled through the "data" mode on my watch and sure enough my previous time had been right at 46' 13', a difference of 1' 46" seconds. Wow!
Nancy walked through the door and I thrust the watch in her face. "Sub forty-five today, baby!" I said.
"Is that good?" she asked.
"Well it's like almost two minutes off my normal time!" I blurted.
But then my mood humbled and I let her in on the fact that I found it difficult to believe that I knocked close to two minutes off my training run time. It just didn't add up but I could find no specific reason as to why the time wasn't right.
That was Tuesday and today is Thursday. The day of my last five mile training run before the Chicago Half-Marathon, approximately ten days from now.
I decided to run in the morning as to not split up my day. I also made a conscious choice to not try and duplicate the training time I recorded just two days earlier.
I would simply just run the normal course at my normal training pace (75 to 80 percent of race pace), with the only change being that I would not keep track of my split times. Instead I would start my stopwatch at the beginning of the run and stop it at the end.
The training run went off without any major issues and upon completion I quickly glanced down at my watch. A time of 46' 10" stared back at me and I knew I was back down to Earth.
Why I was able to knock off close to two minutes on a run that seemed no different than any other I may never know. Perhaps it was the nap I took just before my afternoon run. Or the fact that I was running in some new Brooks apparel that I will wear for the marathon. Maybe I was abducted by space aliens or it may be one of countless many reasons.
What I do know is that the time only made me hungrier to keep on running and improving my times. Then just maybe when the neighborhood 5K comes around next June, I'll be in good enough condition to compete in my age group.
~namaste~