Blind Race This kind of running is defined as going into a race completely blind as to how you may do because you haven't done any official training and have no idea how fast you are.
So I have decided, out of the blue, to do a blind race this coming Wednesday. I'm not really sure what possessed me to sign up for this race when I did. In fact I still wonder every day why exactly I decided to do this when I'm not even sure if I can run three straight miles at one time, much less do it quickly.
There's also the dilemma of the foot. Now, when I signed up for this race, I did it primarily because I knew that the next race that I jumped back into was going to be difficult because....let's face it...I was going to be scared. Scared for my foot, scared to be slow, scared of not finishing...So I figured that it was better to just do the thing and get it out of my system as soon as possible so i could get back to racing. Right? Right?
So then on Saturday only a few days before said race, my foot starts hurting. Crap. Stress fracture. So spent most of Saturday's 10-miler worrying about my foot. Most of Saturday after the run worrying about my foot. Pretty much spending every second worrying about the foot. That is, of course, when I realized that this was the reason I had to race. Because I knew that as soon as I signed up for one, my foot would start hurting. And true to form, it did. Once I realized this though? Foot pain-gone.
I decided that I couldn't just do a race completely blind without any sort indication of how terrible it was going to be. I wanted to do a couple of faster paced intervals just to see how I was doing. So yesterday I devised a speed workout for myself. An easy one, I"ll give you that, but a speed workout nontheless. It went well. I won't bore you with the splits and statistics and how fast I thought I was running, but I will tell you this: I ran the workout faster than I used to run my workouts in college.I got done with the first 400 and stared at my watch...not really sure how in the world I was going be able to keep that up for an entire workout. I took my next one a bit slower but was able to keep the pace relatively well. I did mostly just 400s and 200s.
This is not to say that I am faster than I was in college because I'm definitely not. However, I am in relatively good shape.
Today, my calves are sore with the lovely pain from running fast in spikes. And I'm tired. so tired. But it feels good. It feels-victorious in a way. haha. I'm really glad that I forced myself to do a speed workout.
Now, back to that race. I'm still running relatively blind. The speed workout gave me a smidge of confidence but not that much. Though winning, and confidence is not the point of this race. The point is me, getting back out there and proving to myself once and for all that my foot isn't going to break every time that I race.
I'm excited to blindly run forward and get to experience a race 8 months after I never thought I would run again. Wish me luck!
There's also the dilemma of the foot. Now, when I signed up for this race, I did it primarily because I knew that the next race that I jumped back into was going to be difficult because....let's face it...I was going to be scared. Scared for my foot, scared to be slow, scared of not finishing...So I figured that it was better to just do the thing and get it out of my system as soon as possible so i could get back to racing. Right? Right?
So then on Saturday only a few days before said race, my foot starts hurting. Crap. Stress fracture. So spent most of Saturday's 10-miler worrying about my foot. Most of Saturday after the run worrying about my foot. Pretty much spending every second worrying about the foot. That is, of course, when I realized that this was the reason I had to race. Because I knew that as soon as I signed up for one, my foot would start hurting. And true to form, it did. Once I realized this though? Foot pain-gone.
I decided that I couldn't just do a race completely blind without any sort indication of how terrible it was going to be. I wanted to do a couple of faster paced intervals just to see how I was doing. So yesterday I devised a speed workout for myself. An easy one, I"ll give you that, but a speed workout nontheless. It went well. I won't bore you with the splits and statistics and how fast I thought I was running, but I will tell you this: I ran the workout faster than I used to run my workouts in college.I got done with the first 400 and stared at my watch...not really sure how in the world I was going be able to keep that up for an entire workout. I took my next one a bit slower but was able to keep the pace relatively well. I did mostly just 400s and 200s.
This is not to say that I am faster than I was in college because I'm definitely not. However, I am in relatively good shape.
Today, my calves are sore with the lovely pain from running fast in spikes. And I'm tired. so tired. But it feels good. It feels-victorious in a way. haha. I'm really glad that I forced myself to do a speed workout.
Now, back to that race. I'm still running relatively blind. The speed workout gave me a smidge of confidence but not that much. Though winning, and confidence is not the point of this race. The point is me, getting back out there and proving to myself once and for all that my foot isn't going to break every time that I race.
I'm excited to blindly run forward and get to experience a race 8 months after I never thought I would run again. Wish me luck!
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